Continuation of “Travelling alone with our children.”

Choose for yourself who you will serve………..But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

Joshua 24: 15 ( I have left out the names of the gods.)

We had only been with Mum and Dad in Port Elizabeth a little while when my sister and family arrived on their way home to Willowmore. (A town in the Karoo South Africa known for Marino sheep). It was when they said they were leaving that my eldest said he wanted to go with them. (I was mistaken for my sister quite often when growing up and congratulated for her piano accomplishment so often that I just politely said thank you). I wasn’t surprised and was happy for him to have that type of confidence. It would only be one or two nights as Mum and Dad were planning to go there for me to spend time with my sister.

It was a time of no child car seats, no mobile phones. A time when you had to trust that the right decision had been made. A time when even now I can’t remember how many days we spent there, or weeks in South Africa. The routines of young children are hourly and they destroyed my memory of days and weeks. Or was that the stress of being alone.

Reflecting on this visit our son must have found the stand alone, white washed, old Dutch styled, house they lived in so different from our white semi-detached, two up two down home in England. The spacious large rooms with high ceilings, the feeling of air moving through and around in the evening and hanging heavy with heat in the day. I wonder if he remembers ?

Shelly did say when I arrived that with both mattresses on the floor she had snuggled down between our two ‘brave’ boys, hers and mine, and stayed with them till they had fallen asleep. She had noticed that as the Karoo darkness wrapped itself around a world of barren Karoo bushes with a few Eucalyptus trees and only a sparse light hitting the dusty gravel roads, our son was missing Mum.

I have a picture of us all. My sister and I are sitting on a bench, we have swapped babies. Our older ones are playing with the family dog. Both boys were used to dogs. Our Mum is coming out the back door in a navy and white spotted dress, nipped in at the waist. She is glowing with joy. After two girls she has four grandsons and we are with her in the same back yard. A sun drenched, dry, warm place in the late afternoon.

Here are some sayings about making decisions:

May your decisions reflect your hopes , not your fears.

Sometimes you make the right decision , sometimes you make the decision right.

Phil Mc Graw

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

Maya Angelou

Thank you for reading this continuation. Travelling is a busy way of living and I didn’t get this done last week. Take care. We are still in Greece.

Sandy 🙂