New Family
On the road today in Houston. The old hometown. It’s a big day. National Adoption Day. Mark it. I’m participating as a grandpa, supporting my daughter and her husband as they officially tie the knot with two lovely children they’ve fostered for the last three years. We’ll gather at the courthouse later this morning to do the deed. There will be pictures, there will be tee-shirts, and a judge will formalize the new, legal family.
I have no idea what happens this afternoon because I am so focused on this morning. I suspect I’ll be like a piece of driftwood on the family current going where it takes me and being happy with the result. It’s actually nice having no other responsibility than simply being there. I need only smile, hug, and do what I’m asked. Luckily, I have reached a point in my life where that is almost the preferred method of being. My main decision is what to wear, and that’s easy.
Of course, there is also a bittersweetness to the day. I’m certain my daughter wishes I was coming as a couple with her late mother, but isn’t this the essence of life? Heck, my mother passed well before most of my life happened, including the birth of my daughter who now misses her mother. But people pass, people are born, life goes on. Old families break apart, new families come together. The departed are remembered, the newly arrived are celebrated, and off we all go into the future making the best of the hand life deals us.
John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale