Happy New Year

Hi folks,

I hope you've all had lovely holidays so far. I'll admit mine have been very up and down. I spent some nice time with my mom's side of the family. My grandparents were in from the States for New Year's and I was able to spend some time with them three days in a row and I saw an uncle and two cousins that I don't get to see very often. I did not, however, get to spend as much time with my Sweetheart as I would have liked, because between his having family in from Poland and my having my grandparents here, things got a bit crowded. He's leaving for Haiti for two months on the 15th (he will be back for a bit in the middle of the two months, hopefully for my birthday, but I don't know for how long), so hopefully after this weekend we'll get some more time together.

As for the holidays with my dad's family, they were not very happy. My dad has not been doing well and we are all trying to accept that there is very little we can do about it. That's the thing with mental illness (in this case, depression), it's not like a physical ailment where treatments, operations and medication can fix most things. When you're dealing with someone who is mentally ill a large part of the initiative towards wellness has to come from the person who is not well or you will not get very far. You can try and push the person in the right direction as much as you want, but if they are not willing to admit that they have a problem and that they need help, you will not get very far if you get anywhere at all. My father will not admit he has a problem and will not get the help he needs, so we are largely powerless. All we can do is call him and be there for him if he needs us, but aside from that, there is nothing we can do and I can't tell you how horrible that feels. My father did let my brother and I go and see him for a little while on New Year's day and we were happy about that, but at the same time it is heart breaking to see my father. He missed Christmas Day with us because it was just too much for him to be there and also because he has rather a bad cold. We're having a family dinner at my grandmother's on Sunday for Epiphany and we're hoping he'll come to that. He's said that he will, so hopefully he'll make it.

I'm hoping that 2013 will be a good year for my family and I, I would love so much for all of us to be happy and healthy, but sometimes it is very hard to hope. I hope that 2013 is lovely for all of you though. I hope that you and your families will be happy and healthy :o) All I can promise for myself is that I will try to be as happy as I can be.