The Family Reunion

The last few days here at Club Sunnyside have been like a mini-family reunion, only better. When Jill and I married, Patrick was a senior in high school. Jill and I decided that, rather than uproot him in his senior year by purchasing a different home that was, say halfway between her job in Tualatin and mine in Gresham, we would move Jill into my home at least until Patrick graduated. It seemed like a perfect plan, on paper.

From the time Patrick's mother and I parted ways, he spent alternate weeks at her home and at mine. Consequently, when he was with me, we focused completely on each other.  Patrick and I were very close during those years, and I was not savvy enough to see the implications for that relationship of adding a third party to the mix. I was in love with Patrick and with Jill, but that didn't mean they were in love with each other. That first year was difficult for all three of us. Ultimately, Patrick decided to stay at his mom's house full time. 

I'm afraid my naivete led to lots of heartache, for which I truly am sorry. But time wounds all heels, they say. To their immense credit and my tremendous relief, Patrick and Jill have little by little found ways to connect over the years and now share mutual love, respect and admiration. 

The last few days here, with the three of us together, have been like vindication for me that my vision of a happy loving family was not the impossible dream. It was more like a badly directed melodrama. 

It turns out that those two rascals have been scheming and planning without my knowledge how to give Jill more down time, give me more time with Patrick and change up the pattern of my days. This latter piece has done my emotional strength a world of good. The time they have spent planning and working together for my benefit have brought them closer together.  If you planned a family reunion of the three of us as we were in that first year and then arrived at the last several days, it might be compared to planning to reunite the Addams Family and discovering that Beaver and Wally and Ward and June Cleaver showed up. 

I am so grateful to the two of them for twenty years of their continuing to find ways to connect without holding grudges or being unwilling to accept overtures of peace and reconciliation. They have filled up my heart to overflowing. It has given me new vigor and even more determination that I will go home and continue to enjoy my amazing family for years to come. 

Thank you, Patrick, and thank you, Jill. I'm livin' the dream here! 

2 Corinthians 5:18

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;