Photo Source: hoffbauer blog

As a kid I loved playing board games. One of my all-time favorites was the Game of LIFE. I even planned my husband’s 50th birthday party using this as a theme. Each table was decorated from a decade of his life complete with pictures and relics of hobbies he enjoyed during that time in his life. It was a fun and quite memorable evening.

But as an adult I am finding the correlation of my life to the Game of LIFE a bit ironic and not so much fun. 

My oldest daughter is expecting her 4th baby any day now in GA. I’ve been staying with her for the past two weeks hoping “today” would be the day. After 14 days like this, we’re a bit discouraged and tired. At the same time, our son and his family, who lives only a mile from us, is packing up 32 years of his life in Florida and moving to Tennessee. I couldn’t be more proud of him. He’s been hired as a copy editor for Dave Ramsey, such a privilege and honor to work for a man you admire and respect so much. But he.is.moving–next week!

I am excitedly sad; Excited for how God is obviously blessing my children, and sad that all 7 of my grandchildren will live far away. There won’t be as many family get togethers at Papa and Nana’s house. I’m grateful–so very grateful–that we have Barefoot Cabin in NC, where we can gather together and make memories. But it certainly isn’t what I expected. I never wanted to be a.faraway.Nana. But I will be, and I have to be okay with it.

I told my daughter that I feel as if my kids keep adding kids to their car on the LIFE board and moving forward lots of spaces, while I keep losing my turn. I know that’s a very depressing thought. My emotions have a life of their own at times, and I’m trusting God to help me speak Truth to my heartache.

It helps me put things in perspective when I realize what my grandmother, Grace, went through. She was forced to leave her family and the life she had ever known to move to a new town unfamiliar to her. She didn’t have e-mail, a cell phone or text messaging at her fingertips. I do. She didn’t have the internet allowing her to Skype with her parents and siblings whom she missed so much. All she could do was wait for snail mail that didn’t come nearly as often as she hoped. She packed up her memories and that was about all she had to hold onto. It must have been a really sad and lonely time for her.

The Internet has made our world much smaller today, and for this I’m grateful.

We have become quite creative in celebrating special moments in each other’s lives via Skype:

• Coloring Easter eggs together from our own kitchens.
• Coloring in the same coloring books together purchased at the dollar store.
• Reading a favorite book out loud
• Playing hide and go seek–okay, my granddaughters thought of this one, and it didn’t work so well. But it sure made me smile.

Our game board is expanding. It’s larger than we ever expected spanning three states, but we’re still in it together. And in the end we will all win because of the love we share.

I think today I started moving forward again. And the good news? It’s my Pay Day.

“The LORD has done great things for us; we are glad.” – Psalms 126:3 ESV