Sometimes we see something,…..a picture, a captured moment, a tender touch and it brings back a lost moment to us. Or at least a moment we thought was lost. And then there it is. I had such a moment the other day.
Time goes by so fast that we are afraid we will forget special moments, special relationships. But I am reminded of one special one recently. We can get so caught up in what we did and do for our children that we forget what they did for us…and how they helped us through difficult times.
A move to England when I was such a young mother was life altering. Yes there was excitement, but it was so tinged with fear and anxiety it’s hard to remember how I physically got myself on the plane and left this country. I carried with me, a 7 month old baby. They may speak the same language over there, but the way of life, the customs, the expectations …they were so different. I did not have the sort of personality that stepped into a new and totally unknown community and grasped it. I was terribly afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing. Would I stand out? Would my harsh American accent draw attention to myself? How to take a shy and retiring personality full of fear and self-doubt and work its way into the community? It would be so easy to find every excuse to say goodbye to my husband in the morning….and just mark time until he returned from London in the evening. But it would make for some long and lonely days.
Enter…the best little excuse in the world for integrating yourself into a new community, a new country and a totally new way of life!! This little man here was responsible for totally immersing me into the English way of life. He was my companion. He made me get up each morning and throw myself into the day where the British world of nappies, teatime, Dr. Who, well-baby clinics, church crèche, neighborhood parks with prams all formed the mainstay of the English way of life. He made me fill my days.
I look back and think with fond memories of just how much this little man did for me. My world revolved around his daily needs. His endearing personality and charm opened the world to me and introduced me to so many wonderful people. He was without question a conversation starter. I have never told him what an important part he played in my life and my adjustment to living in a new country away from family and friends. How he filled my long days with joy and helped me cross that barrier of feeling alone.
I am so fortunate that he made that journey with us when we moved away to the UK. I am not sure the entire experience would have ever worked out as well as it did if I hadn’t had him to share it with at the beginning. He made that initial immersion a most wonderful experience.
I see him now with his little man and I think to myself....I hope he can someday look back and realize the joy that he shared with new adventures and new experiences with his little boy and be as thankful as I am.
I will forever be grateful to have had that experience outside the United States and am even more grateful that we took those steps onto foreign soil with this little fellow….he made the experience richer for us all.
