Italy is Just Too Far Away!

Why does Italy have to be nearly 7,000 miles away from home? We are really missing our kids and grandkids stationed there. A year has passed and less than two to go. Somehow...day to day that is not much consolation. Especially since they will probably be some other far away place once that tour is over. We have been spoiled by having them live near us twice in the last ten years.

Lou Lou & Rossie

The problem with Italy is the communications. They are nine hours ahead of us so you have to really plan the times you will talk. Then there is the problem of them having a life and so they are gone a lot when they are awake. The very nerve, huh?

They have cell phones but the problem there is that they aren't always near them or turned on and although their phone has a message center and an Italian lady that asks you to leave a message~Laura and Robert do not have a plan that has message retrieval. I left plenty of messages and wondered why they were never returned before I found out about that little glitch.

The home phone is out of order and the last time that was the case it took over one month to get it fixed. Of course that means their Internet is out too. They don't call home because they have not received a single phone bill in the year they have been in Italy. So they have no clue how much calling home costs and they can't seem to find out. Because they know that everything else is sky high there, they don't want to risk a huge bill coming in unexpectedly for several hundred Euros.

The problem is there are two little boys there that are growing up so fast and I hate their childhood slipping through our fingers thousands of miles away.

Spencie Looking Mischievous

The Day They Left the US and us

Turning 6 in Italy

International Goofy Faces

The other problem is that Laura is one of my very best friends in all of life and I totally am aching to talk with her, be with her, have a mom and daughter day..

Our Beautiful Girl

This separation has been hard because I realized we have no set date for a reunion and is there isn't a target to look forward to..........and I know that it's very hard on her too. Not only do those in the armed forces sacrifice so much, but let us not forget their families as well. Vanessa, I am thinking of you and Jake too, Sweetie!

Have you thanked a military family lately? This freedom we all enjoy is definitely not free. It is bought with a huge price.

Our Robert!

Sometimes I think I will never get use to this empty nest. No actually, I do like the empty nest...just not the distance between their nest and ours.

This missing them is a real problem for me. I know many people would prefer to not say the word "problem" but prefer to call this a "challenge." But as for me, I am calling a spade a spade here...this is a problem and there is no glossing over it. I have said it seven times in this post and don't regret it because that is what it is. Calling it a challenge somehow negates that achy-breaky feeling of loneliness I have today.

And that is my whining session for today!