Hello from Otway!
We are glad to be home. These trips seem to grow longer with each passing week! Luckily, we are beginning to see an end in sight. Grant will continue this weekly schedule until sometime around Thanksgiving. And tonight, with fall in the air, Thanksgiving seems much closer than last week!
I was reflecting a little today. It was 6 years ago today that we found out that we were pregnant with Grant. It was the day after 9/11. We had been trying for another baby for over a year and were starting to get a little anxious! So, on September 12th I woke up from a night of long and weird dreams. I, like everyone else, had spent the previous day in shock and awe, glued to the TV. Needless to say, I didn't sleep much and when I did sleep, I mostly had nightmares. But - amid all of the nightmares I had a dream about my Uncle Mike.
My Uncle Mike was like my 2nd daddy! He was my special uncle who always made me feel special too! Uncle Mike had 2 girls of his own, and I was his youngest adopted neice/daughter - a position that I was glad to hold! Uncle Mike was killed in a tragic car accident when I was in college, just a few weeks after he had surprised me by coming to my senior vocal recital at ECU. That visit was the last time I ever saw him. I had often wished to dream of him and talk with him. So - on the night of September 11th, I had my most vivid Uncle Mike dream ever. He approached me in a crowded room. I looked around in shock to see if everyone else could see him, but I was the only one. He was carrying a dark little baby boy in his rough and work-worn hands. As he approached me he said, "You are! Doesn't he look a lot like me?" Then he held this beautiful, fat, dark-haired baby boy up close to his face and smiled. That was all.
I felt like Uncle Mike had sent me a message, so early on the morning of Septmeber 12th, I took an at-home test, and indeed, I was expecting. Nine months later, Uncle Mike's dark-haired boy became my baby boy, Grant.
Who could have guessed the path that Grant's life would take. Maybe Uncle Mike already knew about all of this. Could he have told me? Would it have mattered, anyway?
Too many questions for tonight.
At the moment, Grant and his brother and sister are sleeping soundly. Life seems wonderfully normal. That's what matters the most right now. And that's the way I like it.
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5 comments:
Let me know when you and your Ma will be back up here, I'd like to run over to see you at CH. Glad to hear there is an end. Much love.
Your Pa is glad you are back and says Amen! to normal life for a while. Ken (Burnette) keeps reminding me that there is no such thing as "normal life", there is just "life." Anyway, I am glad you and yours are back home and all sleeping in the same house (and if I am guessing right, all in the same bed by now!)
Pa
Sometimes just a few hours of things settling down can invigorate us, and give us the strength to plunge in again and face whatever the day has in store. I'm so glad that was the case last night, Em.
I loved taking that trip down memory lane back to your voice recital. My favorite Uncle Mike comment from your recital was something like this: "I don't know what Boo is singing, but she is doing it mighty good!" Your recital had German, Italian, French... maybe another language or two! Mike sat in that recital hall with a smile on his face the whole time!
Now about the dream from your Uncle Mike- I have no doubt that he surely did know what special little dark-headed sweetie pie was coming to be your and Kevin's son. Wow- what an exciting time. He'll always be my oldest grandson- setting the example to the other 7 boys in my brood, and with Joella's little Charlie coming after Christmas, that will make 9 boys, our own baseball team!
Next week can wait for now. Let's enjoy today! Love you all, like Tiny Tim says at the end of "A Christmas Carol," and God bless us, everyone.
Thank you for sharing that beautiful dream about your Uncle Mike. Isn't it amazing how somethings are revealed to us! I want you to know that your family is such a strength to me. I can be having one of those days, and all I have to do is read your post. Within moments I think "If Emily can deal with this so well then I too can have the strength to deal with the trials life brings". Your the best, keep up the faith! Lots of love, Stephanie Howard
Emily,
What a beautiful dream. I never knew that. I read an account very similar to that in a book Mama gave me. Wonderful things.
Rachel
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