Keeping it together

It seems like I keep going round and round and round.
Family is important to me. They are the glue that keep me together. My family is my husband and 3 kids.

We have been through some very hard times and yet we are a happy, complete family. Outside of my little family is my extended family. I am very close to my younger brother who came along when I was nearly 18. I remember taking him out for walks in the pram and getting those weird looks like: he's yours?

I remember moving out and still going to see him every week. I used to take him to feed the ducks and take his friends too when he was only 2. I was class helper when he was in kindy and I loved spending time with him. When I met Andrew is was fantastic to see the connection they had together. They bonded straight away and went into playing sports and training for T-Ball. Mr J was born when my brother was only 7 so there is a close age gap between the two. Seeing them together as they grew was so cute. My brother was proud to be called an Uncle and only being in Year One!

Over the years our relationship has grown and changed. We have baby sat him, he has played with our kids and we have seen him grow into his role as an uncle to 3 little kids. Our kids love having an uncle with a cool toy collection and who plays their games.

So considering the recent changes it has been so hard in trying to keep things "normal". We still want to see him and I hate seeing him being put in a difficult position. I have said over and over that just because I don't talk to Mum it doesn't mean I don't want to see him. He has been great about saying he will see us when we can arrange something. Over the last 6 months we have seen him 2 or 3 times and the kids are really missing the contact. I have been contacting my Mum asking over and over to make some arrangement to allow for ongoing contact with no luck. Well with the doctor telling me to cut back on stress I thought this was a good place to start. We needed to keep our family unit together and make sure my brother was comfortable.

I had spoken to my Mum on the phone and she had said he would get back to me but with no luck so today after texts etc I went over. Well the talk in person didn't go well either. It didn't matter how I said that he didn't need to be involved and that we could make arrangements to see each other without talking I was still shot down. I explained to my brother face to face that this was about him keeping our relationship together and making sure he could see when he wanted without any fear of getting in trouble or having to keep it a secret.

The conversation didn't end well but Mum did say that she would let me know.....