Full Circle.
How fitting is it that tomorrow is Father's Day. I have just spent 4 fun filled days on vacation with my folks and my kids. It is one of the few vacations I have managed to fit in with my parents other then our trips to Florida which usually become a mad family dash as my sister lives there. I had almost forgotten how much fun travelling with my folks can be, my dad is the master of the adventure and can turn any ordinary trip into a fun filled event. We went to a cousins wedding in Cleveland (ho hum), religious cousin (ho-hummer), we drove 10 hours to get there. My firend Julie lent us a dvd player for the car and except for one small altercation we did not hear a peep from the kids. They had their eyes glued to the tv set the whole way there - for a woman who does not have cable it felt great giving in to the power of the all encompassing box. We arrived at 12:30am, my dad then went and checked out every room in the hotel until he found one acceptable for his ladies. My folks kept Ryan in their room and Nikki stayed with me. For those of you who don't know my little monkeys, Ryan is cosmically connected with my mom, and Nikki has not had her umbilical cord cut yet. The kids were full of beans and we finally got them to sleep, Nikki woke bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30am declaring Mommy I love you the bestest can I come shnuggle you in your bed. I have yet to ever refuse an invitation like that. Bleary eyed and barely functioning after three sleepless nights preceding our trip, I got to feel this warm little body shnuggle up to me for a few hours. Oh the love.
They spent the day at the pool and we went off to the wedding, I will fill you in on the wedding in a short while as the connection is nothing short of remarkable and just makes one even more aware of the higher power that exisits and the 6 degrees of separation in all our lives.
Friday my dad packed us all into the car and took us to http://www.geaugalake.com/ it was awesome. Nikki went on her first roller coaster and declared, and I quote "Mommy, that was my dream come true", obviously my mom took them on the rollercoaster because she is not aware of the fact that her body is no longer 25 and she has this bountless energy that certainly skipped my generation. She had the kids bouncing from coater to coaster, I took them through the water parks and slides. And then we declared war, my mom, Ryan, and Nikki in a ball pit of note. Tons of foam balls and cannons and guns to shoot them at people (well little kiddies actually) in this three level maze - it was a blast - we had tons of kids swarming around, my mom and I took them on, it was a riot. We then bundled up soaked and happy kids, and headed for Lake Eerie. Around which time the kids were STARVED they could no longer eat any more junk food and just wanted some real food. My dad tracked down a policeman, told him what we needed and next thing I know, my dad has organized a police escort to take us to a barge which serves the best seafood in town.
I was laughing because I said to him that is a real Jewish 911 emergency, officer, I have kids to feed, help - do you know where the nearest decent restaurant is. LOL, my dad offered the kind cop a meal but he was unable to join us, guess he had real emergencies to attend to - only my dad. LOL
Some of you may know that I embarked on a yearning to find my roots and research my family tree. Through the process I have reconnected with many members of my family from my father's side. It has been quite a journey. I have been very fortunate for in my research I came across a remarkable man who had researched his family tree, we have the same last name and he put me in touch with someone who had traced his family back to the 1500's, lo and behold it was my family tree, we are trying to tie up the loose end and connect the dots but yes we fit in to it on page 9 and 27 of this huge tree - it is really wild. My one uncle in South Africa gave me the number of someone who lives in Pittsburg, PA who he knew was related to us and did not know how. I called the phone number, which incidentally was 2 digits different from mine. The man I had called to speak with had regretably died only two months before and his assistant gave me his son's number. He is this amazing man who was brought very reform, he had two kids, went to listen to a Rabbi from Florida give a lecture, this rabbi is so powerful that he influenced my "relative" to become frum, he started another family, there is 12 year age gap between his first two kids and the following 5. This same Rabbi is the one my sister works for and he influenced her to become more observant.
Bill and I had many chats, he had never heard of us and really had no information, he put me in touch with his dads sisters, two remarkable ladies in their late 80's who I have yet to meet but have had some wonderful chats with. Through all the e-mails, Bill connected with a religious cousin of mine who lives in Cleveland (whose daughter got married this past weekend). They have become quite close. This cousin who now lives in Cleveland was brought up in Israel, his dad had left South Africa in 1948 for Tel Aviv when the State of Israel was formed. The parents and my dad are first cousins, there is a huge age difference between my dad and his cousin who is now in his mid 80's. (Hope this is still clear - it gets really whacky in a few minutes - bear with me :) ) The 85 year old cousin who still lives in Israel, the bride's grandfather, is nothing short of obsessed with the family tree I happened to find, and spends all his time researching it and trying to find clues. he is very religious and is drawn this part of the family as there are apparently 15 generations of rabbi's in the family.
On the day of the wedding he spoke to the "cousin" in Pittsburgh, who raced to his grandmothers grave to find the clue we were all looking for, turns out his grandmother, and my father's great-grandfather were siblings. Here were were generations later all breaking bread at a wedding -it was wild. For all these years the families knew nothing about each other and here the circle closed we all got to know each other again.
It was strange going to a wedding where I did not know the bride and had only met her father twice in my life, but have spent many a shabbas with her grandparents in Israel. It amazes me this intertwining of our genes. My one cousin who was at the wedding, found out through our family tree that he was related to his WIFE!!! Distantly but still related. If you choose to start your own journey into your heritage try www.jewishgen.org it is a great site.
Hope this made sense.
I know I started out about to acknowledge my father and the man that he is. I guess I got side tracked. I think I can sum up my dad, when Josh and I first got married he told me that he always felt that he could never treat me the way my dad did as my dad was such a tough act to follow, and that he hoped his girls would feel about him the way we do about my dad. Josh does have a tough act to follow, my dad set down a hard path for anyone to follow. From taking us to plays when we were kids, there we were all dressed in our hats and gloves, bobby socks and black shoes with the gold buckles, at interval he would buy us each our own box of black magic chocolates, my mom's favourite ones. I remember trying to balance the huge box of chocolates on my lap. He has always managed to make each of us feel so special and I feel so fortunate to have been treated as a princess but this special man. He is my hero, always has been, always will be. Sorry sweetie, you'll have your own place in my heart but my daddy will always be the first man I loved and the one I look up to today. Happy daddy's day dad. I love you.
They spent the day at the pool and we went off to the wedding, I will fill you in on the wedding in a short while as the connection is nothing short of remarkable and just makes one even more aware of the higher power that exisits and the 6 degrees of separation in all our lives.
Friday my dad packed us all into the car and took us to http://www.geaugalake.com/ it was awesome. Nikki went on her first roller coaster and declared, and I quote "Mommy, that was my dream come true", obviously my mom took them on the rollercoaster because she is not aware of the fact that her body is no longer 25 and she has this bountless energy that certainly skipped my generation. She had the kids bouncing from coater to coaster, I took them through the water parks and slides. And then we declared war, my mom, Ryan, and Nikki in a ball pit of note. Tons of foam balls and cannons and guns to shoot them at people (well little kiddies actually) in this three level maze - it was a blast - we had tons of kids swarming around, my mom and I took them on, it was a riot. We then bundled up soaked and happy kids, and headed for Lake Eerie. Around which time the kids were STARVED they could no longer eat any more junk food and just wanted some real food. My dad tracked down a policeman, told him what we needed and next thing I know, my dad has organized a police escort to take us to a barge which serves the best seafood in town.
I was laughing because I said to him that is a real Jewish 911 emergency, officer, I have kids to feed, help - do you know where the nearest decent restaurant is. LOL, my dad offered the kind cop a meal but he was unable to join us, guess he had real emergencies to attend to - only my dad. LOL
Some of you may know that I embarked on a yearning to find my roots and research my family tree. Through the process I have reconnected with many members of my family from my father's side. It has been quite a journey. I have been very fortunate for in my research I came across a remarkable man who had researched his family tree, we have the same last name and he put me in touch with someone who had traced his family back to the 1500's, lo and behold it was my family tree, we are trying to tie up the loose end and connect the dots but yes we fit in to it on page 9 and 27 of this huge tree - it is really wild. My one uncle in South Africa gave me the number of someone who lives in Pittsburg, PA who he knew was related to us and did not know how. I called the phone number, which incidentally was 2 digits different from mine. The man I had called to speak with had regretably died only two months before and his assistant gave me his son's number. He is this amazing man who was brought very reform, he had two kids, went to listen to a Rabbi from Florida give a lecture, this rabbi is so powerful that he influenced my "relative" to become frum, he started another family, there is 12 year age gap between his first two kids and the following 5. This same Rabbi is the one my sister works for and he influenced her to become more observant.
Bill and I had many chats, he had never heard of us and really had no information, he put me in touch with his dads sisters, two remarkable ladies in their late 80's who I have yet to meet but have had some wonderful chats with. Through all the e-mails, Bill connected with a religious cousin of mine who lives in Cleveland (whose daughter got married this past weekend). They have become quite close. This cousin who now lives in Cleveland was brought up in Israel, his dad had left South Africa in 1948 for Tel Aviv when the State of Israel was formed. The parents and my dad are first cousins, there is a huge age difference between my dad and his cousin who is now in his mid 80's. (Hope this is still clear - it gets really whacky in a few minutes - bear with me :) ) The 85 year old cousin who still lives in Israel, the bride's grandfather, is nothing short of obsessed with the family tree I happened to find, and spends all his time researching it and trying to find clues. he is very religious and is drawn this part of the family as there are apparently 15 generations of rabbi's in the family.
On the day of the wedding he spoke to the "cousin" in Pittsburgh, who raced to his grandmothers grave to find the clue we were all looking for, turns out his grandmother, and my father's great-grandfather were siblings. Here were were generations later all breaking bread at a wedding -it was wild. For all these years the families knew nothing about each other and here the circle closed we all got to know each other again.
It was strange going to a wedding where I did not know the bride and had only met her father twice in my life, but have spent many a shabbas with her grandparents in Israel. It amazes me this intertwining of our genes. My one cousin who was at the wedding, found out through our family tree that he was related to his WIFE!!! Distantly but still related. If you choose to start your own journey into your heritage try www.jewishgen.org it is a great site.
Hope this made sense.
I know I started out about to acknowledge my father and the man that he is. I guess I got side tracked. I think I can sum up my dad, when Josh and I first got married he told me that he always felt that he could never treat me the way my dad did as my dad was such a tough act to follow, and that he hoped his girls would feel about him the way we do about my dad. Josh does have a tough act to follow, my dad set down a hard path for anyone to follow. From taking us to plays when we were kids, there we were all dressed in our hats and gloves, bobby socks and black shoes with the gold buckles, at interval he would buy us each our own box of black magic chocolates, my mom's favourite ones. I remember trying to balance the huge box of chocolates on my lap. He has always managed to make each of us feel so special and I feel so fortunate to have been treated as a princess but this special man. He is my hero, always has been, always will be. Sorry sweetie, you'll have your own place in my heart but my daddy will always be the first man I loved and the one I look up to today. Happy daddy's day dad. I love you.
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