Living Far from Family

I hear you! My family lives in three different states (with the closest relative about 8 hours away). It is soo incredibly difficult when family is not close by. (I was so desperate when caring for my newborn, that I flew two different relatives out over a 2-month period.) In another 1.5 years, we will be up for a (military) assignment in the same CITY as my sister/her family. I not really a politico, but I've already started campaigning for that spot. (Recently I wrote my boss an email telling him that we bought a new car and the salesman told us that every fourth car in Colorado is our new car, and so "we have the car. we just need the assignment." ha ha.

We live far from our families, too. When I was growing up, I thought that was normal -- my mother's parents lived in India, my father's parents were in Haiti, and we grew up in NJ. But my brother moved back to our hometown a few years ago, and is right around the corner from my parents, and I really do now see why so many people choose to stay close to wherever their parents are. All that free childcare and the automatic support network!