The Grandparents

            My job has once again gotten to be volatile, and this morning as I write, I doubt I’ll be with this company much longer. I’d actually quit back in October, a good seven months ago, but the boss had convinced me to stick it out (with incentives), and then the work got interesting and exciting again. And not that things are any less exciting these days, but, without going into too much detail, it looks like this job is coming to an end.

            The craziest thing about all of this is our second child is due in five weeks. At this point, I’m hoping to have a good lunch meeting with the boss and close things well, hopefully get a decent final check, and then we’ll be freed up to pack and prepare ourselves for the big move to Montana after the child is born, where, believe it or not, we’ll move in with my parents.

            I read recently somewhere a guy who said you should never put your wife and family through the experience of living with your parents, at any time. I seriously hope that was true for his situation, but not for us, because at this point, I don’t see other options. I’ll be out of work, and moving into a country hit hard by the recession. I don’t have another place to go, yet.

            I’m not overly worried about Michelle living there. She actually lived with my parents for a few years and, unbeknownst to them, she adopted them as her own. In fact, she had been living in their upstairs spare bedroom when we fell in love four years ago at my brother's wedding. My parents found our relationship awkward at first – like their son marrying their daughter. But then it all clicked and they realized: this is even better – Michelle would actually become their daughter, not just in spirit, and be the mother of their grandchildren.

            On the wedding day, my friends who hadn’t known Michelle at all were surprised to hear my brothers giving speeches of Michelle’s antics from over ten years before. It suddenly hit them that I didn’t just meet her, fall in love, and get married within a year. She’d been in the family, even celebrating Christmas and Thanksgiving with us, for many, many years.

            So, as I said, I’m not overly worried about Michelle fitting in at my parents’ house. I think she’ll do well, and I know my mother will be thrilled to be able to spend so much time with her and with the grandkids. I just hope that I can handle it.