one lucky family

I hope not to ramble to much - this subject can be a little touchy... but here goes.

It takes a village to raise a child!

I'm from Toronto, we don't have villages, smallest thing I think I was exposed to growing up was a town... village sounds like something with 50 people in it and only one postal code. So for my peace of mind let's rephrase and say it takes a community to raise a child. ahhhh much better

We are pretty lucky as far as families go... original mom and dad unit still holding up, married, no infidelity (hmmm I will make sure to verify that...lol), had a healthy son, and just had another... here's the thing though, sometimes we forgot all the help we receive to be able to achieve what we do. To set the stage let me explain - both of our (my wife and I) families are based around the GTA (greater Toronto area), so really in terms of blood relatives in the near vicinity, we are pretty much nil. They do visit, some more then others (big up Dtrini and de crew), but on a day to day basis, we don't get mom's cooking or dad's advice without a 4.5 hour trek across Ontario (gone are the 3 hour midnite missions... sigh). So what did we do to provide relief from this abyss... we adopted family.

Normally, they adopt you, but in our case we sought the best of the best and ADOPTED THEM. So now our kids (ooooo I love the sound of that... say it again... kids...) have many sets of grand ma's and grand pa's and a whole heap of aunties and uncles and cousins. When the wife went into labour (she does not blog or facebook, so until she does she is the wife, no fancy nickname for her I tell you what) one set of grandparents took son #1 and grandma of the second set was actually there to welcome in son #2 (as joy would have it she welcomed son #1 into the world as well). I am sure we would have "found a way", but we didn't have to (Thank God!).

There has been an outpouring of love from all angles of people who we thought were friends, but we now know are really undercover family... soooo many names to mention I dare not try and ere by forgetting one. Thank you ALL so very much!!!.

Over the years I have had many deep conversation with a WIDE variety of people, but one always comes to mind when the notion of friend comes up. It was 4 of us in a room watching kickers (aka martial arts films) and the friends topic came up. Her description in its essence was that acquaintances ask what you need or how they can help, friends just find a way to "git 'er done".

I have lived by and with that since then :)

I just picked up a message from a 'friend' who has explained that she is coming over with fully prepared dinner... the day after delivery a 'friend' drove in from Montreal just to hug Keisha and say congrats then packed up her two babies and wonderful husband, and drove right back... a friend realizing that hospital food tastes like - well a hospital, brought in roti (mmmmmm) and curried goat and rice (mmmmmmmmmmm x2)... and so on....

I can speak confidently for my wife when I say, we are the type of family that just finds a way. Hardly ever will you hear us ask for help, we just try to make it work. You wanna give us a break, come and take the rug rats, don't tell us to drop them of if we need a rest, because we never "need" a rest from them - oooo do we love being around them and hugging them and playing with them and and and....

What I'm trying to gt at... if you want to help a "friend" just go out and find a way to help them. You can ask what they need, but if they are anything like us (and we have found that there are many like us) they will say they don't need anything... so just find a way!!! Now, be careful, ya don't wanna force yourself unwantedly upon someone else, but how many people do you know would refuse a home cooked Italian meal :)

Take care,