Back to Australia

Do you recall last January when I wrote about how William had found the daughter he had never met before on facebook? They've had a bit of a rocky relationship in the year they have known each other. She was, after the first few weeks, pretty bitter. He had a lot of blame thrown his way. Totally understandable but a part of me wanted to email her and say "Hey, you are 25 years old. Grow up. The fact that he never knew you was YOUR MOTHER'S choice. He was 17, a total mess and is now 43 and still a bit of a mess. He doesn't need you blaming him for a mistake that he has tried to rectify for years." But I didn't. After all, he's a grown man and can fight his own battles. They didn't talk for a quite a while and then the mother found him on facebook and they started talking. She talked to Michaela, and had her contact William again. So for the last few months they have been in regular contact. She told him she was getting married, and asked him to come to the wedding.

Well, it was a no go. He's at a new job, with not enough earned vacation days yet. We don't have the money for a flight to Australia. She was disappointed. He felt he was letting her down. We wondered if we could somehow swing it.

And somehow we did. On February 17th, William leaves for Melbourne. She is getting married on the 27th and he returns home the next day.

I am not entirely happy about this. A part of me thinks he is being set up for disappointment. What if she doesn't like him? What if her step father raises a fuss? Apparently neither he nor the 2 younger siblings are very happy about this. I asked him if it would not be better to go at a later time when she is not busy doing last minute wedding preperations but he says she wants him at the wedding. And so he will go. I hope it is worth it.

Now I am shopping for it. We are going to get an Irish wedding blessings plate and a Canadian Olympic sweater for her little boy. There are 16 nieces and nephews to buy a little something for. I have found some cute Canada shirts for 3 of the girls, and have some baby clothes for the newborn twins, but still have much more to get!

Oh, and get this...he's not telling his mum or sisters that he is coming! I made some comment on facebook about his trip to Australia and he got a wee bit annoyed with me. "I told you that, Emma, that I was going to surprise them. It was the very first thing I said!" Um, no actually, it wasn't. I would remember that because I would have said "What the feck are you thinking! That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Honestly! Anyway, I am pretty sure his one sister saw it, or at the very least her son said something. She called here that very night and she never, every calls us. She didn't ask and he didn't volunteer it. He was talking to the nephew on facebook the other night and he did ask William if he was coming, to which he said yes, but it was meant to be a surprise. He says he didn't tell anyone, but we are pretty sure they know!

Anyway, he's looking forward to the trip and I am not looking forward to it. Bloody Teacher's Convention is 2 days the week he is gone, I'll be driven demented with no evening time Daddy on duty!