Friday, June 12, 2009

2005 June- birds leave the nest

Did someone wake me up and tell me, "Your life will never be the same" ? No!

Life was going along merrily with me living in Africa. I simply stepped into a new phase of life. A step which would forever change the dynamics of my life.

My son, Sean, lived in the United States studying for his Physics degree. Now it was time for my daughter, Katrina, to follow her brother's footsteps. She would go and stay with her brother and do her final year of high school. It all seemed like it was going to be so easy until we realized there was no way to separate Katrina from her younger sister Cassandra. Cassandra ended up following Katrina to live with her brother.

A 19 year old young man took his 17 and 15 year old sisters in to live with him. His parents were all the way over in Ghana. Some people have asked me how in the world I trusted my 19 year old son to take care of his sisters. It never was something we gave a second thought about. He was so trustworthy. The two girls were also very trustworthy. All three kids went to school and worked after school and went to church. They said they never had time to get into trouble because they were too busy.


They made it through the year. We don't talk about the year though. If we do refer to it, we call it 'the dark year.' No one knew the tears I wept over in Ghana. Katrina and Cassandra said they never got used to arriving home to a cold apartment and not having parents to greet them. Sean says he grew into an old man that year. We made it through the year, but I doubt I would make the same decision again. My children say they are better for the experience, I think they are the type of kids who take any experience and use it to become better.

5 comments:

  1. you are one brave mom and you have 3 amazing kids. But i understand what your kids mean when they say, they're better for the experience. I tell my mom that all the time. i left home at 17 to live on my own and it's made me a better person.

    btw, i've moved from blogger to wordpress. please update your blogroll

    ReplyDelete
  2. A- it does my heart good to know that someone else went through a similar experience and came out better for it!!

    As for the move- I'm just now updating my blogroll!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. More than the kids I can imagine ur sadness suddenly finding ur nest empty.
    Ur son really sounds so responsible & ur daughters not far behind.

    Finally it all reflects back to u as u have been a fine example for them. I only hope I can do it atleast half as well as u.

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  4. aww, they sound like great kids and pretty cool individuals :) and you are a brave woman. i found it difficult letting go off my brother and i still worry about him being all alone so far away.

    btw, i moved.
    http://limenlemons.wordpress.com/

    N

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  5. lime- you've moved!! I just read on your other one and then checked out the new one- so I have to update my blogroll (again) seems all my friends are moving

    ReplyDelete

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