Comments on: Long Distance Family: 8 Ways to Connect

By: Andi

Andi — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:25:33 +0000

Deebee,
I LOVE the idea of saving the songs to listen to over and over. Thanks!

By: Deebee

Deebee — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:57:43 +0000

Singing Happy Birthday is always fun! On key or off key! We even save those phone messages when the kids call and sing to us so it goes both ways!

By: Andi

Andi — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:49:44 +0000

don’t know how I wrote ‘Angel’ above; my husband is ‘Andy’…must have been thinking ‘what an angel to let me go’ when I wrote it? lol
Saturday we phoned our six year old grand-daughter in Norway to sing Happy Birthday to her. Somehow we knew she was old enuf that it really made an impression on her this year :-)
We call family and friends near and far to sing to them ….it’s become a tradition that they all look forward to inspite of their groans if we deliberately sing out of tune for some of them.
Deebee you’re so right; saying good-bye isn’t easy at all :-( Sometimes it’s tuff to be grand-parents eh?

By: Deebee

Deebee — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:37:56 +0000

What great ideas ladies!! I just got back from visiting our two granddaughters and saying goodbye never gets any easier. But as they get older it’s neat to see their response when we do get together and their big smiles when we skype. Even the little one at 10 months had a big smile for us yesterday on skype.

By: Andi

Andi — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:01:02 +0000

Hi Angel, wow what a shock for both of you but praise God for how you’re building relationship.
I send stickies, and other flat items in the envelopes. The girls send me pictures they’ve coloured of their house so I will know what it looks like. An interesting book; things that are light weight and not too heavy on postage.
Hair baubles; our daughter found the most amazing dress up dolls w/sticky for changing costumes that are flat
Can you afford a digital frame and send her a ‘stick’ w/photos of her dad and siblings, your home, etc??? That’s more expensive but seeing how you live would be huge for her.

Please keep in touch ladies as you think of other things?

I’m off to Norway the end of April thanks to a seat sale and my husband saying ‘Go!’
Angel, my husband is in college again at age 57; we’re victims of this Global Recession so are w/God’s help re-inventing our lives.

By: Angel

Angel — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:44:56 +0000

I have a step daughter that lives in New york and we live in Mississippi. We have 5 children here. I get on the computer and get clip art pics and coloring sheets , then add letters to them. Some plant thinking of you cards and post cards. I try to get the kids to write her once a month and I send something out for my husband twice a week to her. My husband works for Ambulnace service and goes to college so he doesnt have a lot of time. We have her during the summer but I like for her to know all year round we think of her. He does talk to her atleast once or twice a week on his cell phone. I try to think of what I could send her in the mail. Ive been doing this for 2 years now. My husband didnt even know about her until then . They were seeing each other then she had family issues and moved to New york. 6 yrs letter he gets a call saying by the way I had your child. We are doing everything we can to make up time . Shes only 8 and they are already very close. I just wish I had a few more ideas for the letters.

By: Andi

Andi — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:04:22 +0000

How wonderful. It’s good to hear follow ups as they don’t often happen on line like this.

By: Deebee

Deebee — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:00:27 +0000

I just wanted to follow up on what I had said before Christmas. We had our family altogether in one place for the holidays and it was wonderful. The first skype video call after our daughter and her family returned home her two girls, 2 1/2 and 7 months both had the biggest smiles on their faces. They knew us! Yeah for staying connected with faraway family!

By: Andi

Andi — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:59:07 +0000

Ah SKYPE. We have tried it but the quality is so rotten our son and his family in Norway will no longer even try it. Wonder why it’s so bad?? We just call on land lines and have a special reduced rate for frequent calling.
I like the photo scrap book idea and will test it out w/our Norse daughter-in-law as she is a photo person.
And yes to Seat Sales! They keep us connected physically at least 3 weeks of every year!

We use the mail system as well.
We find that an automated digital photo frame filled w/tons of pics keeps us feeling even more connected than a stationary photo album does. So we like to upload lots of recent pics that share our daily lives…..and feel we are ‘watching the grand-children’ as they grow up before our eyes!

By: Sarah Hau

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:30:23 +0000

Thanks Deebee. Its a work in progress, staying connected. The day after I published this my sister got Skype. One more small step!

Do you have any advice for things that have worked for you living away from family over the years? What about things that you tried and totally failed!