Precious Things

 As Aprils go this one has been a very fine one so far. 
For a lot of this year there have been a few things playing on my mind the main two being my daughter Sophie who has been expecting her first baby and the possibility of complications that have been picked up throughout the pregnancy and my dads ill health which was put down to cancer and watching him fade away over most of the course of this year.
I often get quite irate with myself over the way the situation of life in general just stops you being around as much as you would like to be. I was very lucky in my childhood with my parents being around and together for all of the time that I grew up, and it's strange that it actually took me until I was well into being an adult that I actually did begin to realise just how lucky I was.

My own situation now pulls me into a week of work and a week of being a father which by it's own pattern seems to make me not be as 'available' while I still have a teenage dependent  for the parts of my family who are not so tightly involved in that week here and week there map of my time.

I have felt this very much over the first quarter of this year with everything happening and if nothing else it has made me sit up and remember that there are certain precious things that I need to be more involved with. It isn't the difficulties of it that made me see it, it's the happy endings that all seem to have come along at once.

On April 8th Sophie gave birth to Noah, it's the same date as my dad's birthday. And on April 8th my dad had a treatment that totally removed what the doctors had assured us was cancer and it turned out it wasn't. I don't believe in miracles, but a good surgical team bringing Noah and a misdiagnosis (which happens to the best of doctors) of cancer will do for me.

And new family doesn't just come in small bundles with lots of hair, as if to make the point that family really are special we have had Kasha's brother come over from America to spend a few days with us. 
A new brother for her and he arrived in a Ford Fiesta, it's not as dramatic as Noahs arrival and didn't involve the drama of people running around in green smocks and facemasks but which ever way family choose to turn up is good in my books. And he brought wine, who could ever imagine a better family member than one who brings smiles and wine.
However, that is for another blog....