Shanghai Daughter left for China yesterday

How wonderful that you had such a good time with your Gkids. I don't blame you for feeling sad. How soon do you expect to see them again? Are they there permanently?

They will be there until December. Their next post is... wait for it....Ethiopia. Yes, they are doing all they can to send Mom to an early grave.

Peg, so happy for you that you had such a long visit. Your posts are a reminder for me that things could be worse. My daughter is headed to Kenya but only for a couple weeks and then back to London. Right now I am so excited, i can't take it. DD seems to have forgotten that we are connected on a travel app. and i just got a notice that she booked a flight for three days in Chicago this weekend. I think she will be surprised how prepared i will be.

I remember when I was upset that she lived in DC. Now I think about it, and it was only a 90 min. flight from there to Chicago. ( I live in a Chicago suburb.) It was a lot better than traveling to Ethiopia!

On 5/7/2015 pegomyheart said:

I remember when I was upset that she lived in DC. Now I think about it, and it was only a 90 min. flight from there to Chicago. ( I live in a Chicago suburb.) It was a lot better than traveling to Ethiopia!

Mine lived in D.C., too. Yes, I loved it. The plane trip was like a shuttle and so easy and inexpensive to get to her apt. from the airport on public transport. London is easy to get to but it is a somewhat time consuming and expensive effort to get to her apt.

I would love to go to Ethiopia. Look at it this way. You have exciting places to visit.

On 5/6/2015 pegomyheart said:

They will be there until December. Their next post is... wait for it....Ethiopia. Yes, they are doing all they can to send Mom to an early grave.

OMG, that is terrible! Read the US State Department advisories on Ethiopia. Incursions from neighboring Somalia and Sudan, terrorist activity, "fairly" stable government but lots of political unrest and a long list of cities and regions to avoid. How people with young children can put them in that sort of jeopardy for the sake of a career is truly beyond me.

I normally don't get involved in some of these discussions as we all are passionate about something or other.

But I can't let this one go. Having spent the first 30 years of my life as a military wife I want to remind Blue Collar Babe that she may never have had the opportunity to be "blue collar" if someone had not fought for our freedom in some pretty unsafe places. Our children grew up thinking they had a wonderful opportunity to see the world and at my husband's retirement his only comment was, "I kept our flag clean." I still tear up over that on days like tomorrow.

People in many, many occupations find they must go overseas with their families to keep our country free. God bless them and protect their families.

On 5/24/2015 SeasonedCitizen said:

I normally don't get involved in some of these discussions as we all are passionate about something or other.

But I can't let this one go. Having spent the first 30 years of my life as a military wife I want to remind Blue Collar Babe that she may never have had the opportunity to be "blue collar" if someone had not fought for our freedom in some pretty unsafe places. Our children grew up thinking they had a wonderful opportunity to see the world and at my husband's retirement his only comment was, "I kept our flag clean." I still tear up over that on days like tomorrow.

People in many, many occupations find they must go overseas with their families to keep our country free. God bless them and protect their families.

Thank you so much for your personal reminder of the importance of Memorial Day, and the sacrifices those of us who are active military today are making to keep us safe. Your husband's remark is beautiful. God bless him, and all who serve.

Wow! Reading your posts I find myself thinking two things....first and foremost, how awsome us females (and especially Mothers are). We raise our children and pour all of our love, everything ounce of what we have into them. The entire time we know, we really know that if we do our job right they will leave us because that's the way it's supposed to be, right? Even if they move across town, they leave us.

The second thought is that I sometimes get boo hoo (no one else sees it, I'm a widow) about how much I miss my two daughters who live in Denver and Florida. The oldest lives about 10 miles away but she has 4 children (young) and I only see her a few times a month. Actually, I'm on my way to Florida in about 10 days to see one and meet up with the Colorado daughter.

I just wanted to say kudos to all of you Mothers who have done such a good job raising your children so that they know no matter where they go, no matter what they do in their life, Mom (and Dad if possible) will always be there for them.

I have raised my daughters to be strong independent women. That said, they know they can come to me without judgment on my part with anything. I'm lucky, I still feel needed.

You ladies rock. Just wanted to say it.