My husband's parents have been visiting for the last week, but they left this morning. Avril takes after her dad, so she cried hard for about half an hour after we said, "Goodbye." When I told her I thought we should get up and do our chores, she put her head and shoulders down and said quite sincerely, "I believe I will find it too hard to do anything without them." She is a very sensitive and affectionate child.
Grandma Karen has special toys she brings out for the kids when she comes to visit or when we go to her house. Adele enjoyed sitting at the table with "Gee-gee." That's the word she used for Grandma and Grandpa. She would also ask for the toys, each by the name she had for them. She played with the "puppy house," the "baby ducks," and the "aars." In this video, she is playing with Gee-gee's "aars." That's her word for "cars."
All the toys are pretty low-tech. Some of them are delicate and old, belonging to my husband or his siblings. The kids have to be careful with them, but they always really enjoy them.
Dwayne's parents keep the kids well occupied while they are here and that's nice for me. I got to nap once or twice, maybe even three times, in the last week and I also got to run some errands alone mid-day. Here's a photo of them playing "Go Fish" with the older girls.
We adults just sit around and chat a lot and drink a ton of coffee, a ton of coffee, and munch on snacks. Grandpa is notorious for liking cookies, so we always get a ton of those when he is visiting. We laughed a lot this visit and that was nice.
I'm really thankful for my in-laws. I don't think every wife can say that, but I can.
They always measure their words. They've never said anything that I can recall that has been a source of offense or division as long as I have known them. They always support and encourage our marriage and our parenting. I am beginning to see how remarkable that is.
They both really love Jesus and are devoted to one another through everything. They pray together every morning and evening. As they are growing older (just like we are, of course), we see them helping each other throughout the day with lots of little things and that makes them an inspiring picture of what it means to be married and really love one another through the years.
I know they also pray for us. I think their prayers may be the only reason things work out as well as they do for us sometimes.
They give sound advice and we tend to ask for their advice more often now. As we get older, we realize that we don't know everything, we need good advice, and we are recognizing that they've done so much so well for so long, setting incredible examples for us to follow.
Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children. -Proverbs 17:6
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