It takes a village

I heard ions ago that it takes a village to raise a family and I guess I never really thought that much about it until I had my own.  My husband and I have made the decision to live thousands of miles away from our families and while it is a hard realization, understand that our kids will have different relationships with their grandparents, aunts and uncles than we did.  It doesn't mean that California will always be our home, but for now it is.

Our family village works hard to maintain relationships with the kids is not an easy feet for our far away families, but they do a great job.  They have special ways that they interact with the kids, and in some way, shape and form, at least A & O hold them to almost a ‘super hero’ status. 

For our local village, we have been blessed with some great neighbors.  Our neighbors Miss Trishy and Mr. Gar Bear (I’m sure he loves that moniker), are in their mid-50’s, and are about as great as we could hope for.  They are the ‘stand in grandparents’ that march over to see the ‘dry run’ for our Halloween costumes, check out the new Lego house that was built or join us for birthday cake.  My favorite though, has to be, as soon as their garage door opens, it is almost as if a little beeper goes off in our house to alert the girls that Miss Trishy or Mr. Gar Bear might be ready for their presence, they run out and yell (in their loudest voices)- “Hi, MISS TRISHY!!  We’re here!”

I laugh at the daily interactions our neighbors have with our kids and one particular recent conversation still makes me chuckle, and be it a little ‘Dennis the Menace’ like…  this is out of our living room window with 0, my three year old.

“Mr. Dave, watcha doing out there? Your new deck is looking good (He has been working on this new deck for nearly 4 months, I’m sure he appreciates the kudos). Have you seen my ball? I have a little brother. My Daddy is taking a nap. Mommy is making us do some cleanin up. We are selling all of our toys at our rummage sale unless we start putting them away.".

Later that night, at a neighborhood picnic, I relayed the conversation to his wife.  She laughed, I said I just appreciate his patience and often his responses are just about as priceless.  She commented that he often just doesn’t even know what to say, because he never had kids of his own.  I think he does a great job, just the way he is.

Tell me, who was/is in your village either now or growing up?