Fiona's Visit

Yesterday Fiona came out for a family visit.  She and Jane arrived about 12:30 or 1 p.m. and they didn't leave till nearly 4:30, making it the longest visit we have been allowed to have since Fiona went to the Great School in the Big City.  Jane only stayed about 15 minutes at the front end and then she and her dog excused themselves.  In a totally amazing and lucky turn of events, we have the most non territorial dog in America who truly thinks Jane's dog is his new B.F.F. and can't wait for the dog to show up! He doesn't mind if Jets comes in the house, plays with his toys, pees in his yard. . . but I digress.

After Jane left, I got lunch together with Rob and Fiona helped with dessert (decorating cupcakes).  We had a nice, easy lunch together and then cleaned up and went down to our local mall to play Glow Golf.  The kids and I have never played glow in the dark mini golf before.  It is a trip!  LOL  At least being in near darkness gave me a reason to be a bad golfer!  Everyone had fun and there was no drama. 

Fiona is a bit of a shop-a-holic. LOL  Totally appropriate for a young woman, but not something I can do all the time with the age spread of my gang.  We attempted to visit a store after the golfing but Lissa had had enough and showed the whole store and her big sister just how done she was with all of this!  Fi was gracious about it and I carried the now sobbing tired Lissa the length of the mall to our exit to the car.  Explains why I have a lower back ache today I suspect.  :-)

Back home we played out in the back yard for almost an hour, came in and had a  cool drink and then before we knew it Jane and her pooch had arrived back at the house.  I reminded Fiona to take her prn med and she did so without incident.  This is a mild extra dose that is supposed to help her handle the stress of leaving and going back to school.  Previous visits have had some pretty hard days post visit for her and thoughtful review by the team resulted in the suggestion that this small dose might be all she needs.  Once she is integrated back at school things are usually okay.  It is the getting back in the groove, those first few hours, that are 'make or break' for her and transitions have always been really tough for her regardless of what they are for.  The problem was getting Fiona on board with trying this and so I had made it part of our visit plan.  I don't know that it is "right," but did feel it was worth a try.  

Jane had also asked if we would do a typical de-briefing of our feelings as a group with Fiona which we all did.  KC and Lissa were characteristically open about things for the most part.  Rob, his typical reticent self.  He is willing to openly own positive feelings, it is much harder for him to verbalize things like "angry" "anxious" etc.  But he made a solid effort and I think it went well.

I am hoping and praying that Fiona feels how much we love her and how much a part of our life she is.  Above all, she is my  eldest daughter and she will always hold a special place in my heart.