Letters To Zoe: Our Little Aussie


Our little Aussie

My Dearest Zoe,

I look forward to the days and years ahead when I can tell you more stories about your mom and who she is and where she came from. I am coming close to the end of my 6 week visit with you living in your home where I have seen your days. I know your routine now. I know about your waking up in the morning, your toys and those things that interest you, your rest time each day, your meals, and the end of your day. I have heard your developing vocabulary with you saying, I do, Momma, Daddy, a close pronunciation of Bubbles and Chief and the beginning of an accent. I hear it in the say you say a simple word, car. I have been listening to Aussies now for weeks trying to identify the accent and the different words for familiar things. When you come to our home for a visit through the years you will see that there are differences but it is not that unfamiliar. You are a little Aussie. This is your home. This is where you will grow up.

Distance is painful. We want to be closer to you. We want to be in your life more than we will. But even more than that we are blessed and so grateful you are our little Aussie. We are grateful that your mom has found a home, the love of her life, a good and healthy life style and you. It is just the way it is. This is the acceptance we all have had to come too. We can not dwell on the distance from you. We will rejoice when we are able to be together (and cry when we miss you, to be honest). These past two plus years were so difficult as the distance between us was enhanced by the Covid pandemic. We do not know what the future holds but we will do all we can to come back for time together and expect you to visit us too in the years ahead. More and more stories will be told. More and more magic will be found.

Our lovely Aussie family

One aspect of our lives that has been so important to us has been community. Your mom has a strong and vibrant community of friends who live all around the world. In this time we can stay connected in ways people were never able to years ago. You know, you are from an ancestry of brave travelers and emigrants who left their families for a better life abroad. They left for many reasons that were political, social and adventurous. This history is true for many as this world changed and grew because people were not limited by distance. There were instincts inside many that caused them to reach out further and farther for a better life for themselves and their children and they had to face challenges and loss. Losses of connection to their families and communities were not easy. I will prepare an ancestry notebook for you so that you can see that your mom was but the latest in your line of mothers and fathers and grandparents who took the leap and had the courage of such an adventure.

In Australia your ancestry will be unique with your American history. It is a part of you that includes a 12 times great grandfather and grandmother who came from England on the storied ship, the Mayflower and landed in a new world. It also includes another many, many times great grandfather from another branch of your ancestry who came from England to land in Virginia and became an interpreter for a queen of a Native American tribe and who married a grandmother of yours in the new world who was most likely a native woman. There are so many tales of bravery, of compassion, of adventure and loss and accomplishment that we will only know hints of. There are also ancestors who left famine and injustice for a better world. These people are a part of you. That ancestry now has found its way to Australia through your mom!

You will also learn over time about Australia and the forming of its people and government and how your family played a role through your father. It takes bravery to live in this world as a human. No matter who your ancestors were or what roles they played, on both sides, they met the challenges to be survivors. You carry that bravery, that sense of adventure and resilience. We have to keep this perspective when we feel the distance is so great. When our many great grandparents left their world there was little way to ever be in touch again. In this world, we have ways. We will be talking with you nearly every day. We will know what you are doing and how you are growing. We will know that the immediate stories of our lives will have greater meanings that we will never understand because this life and this world is so vast and mysterious and magical.

We are your grandparents who love you!

You have a community of family in Australia who love you as much as we do. You have grandparents, Nan and Pop who are there for you. We are so grateful they are there to be in your lives, to love you and help out your mom and dad. As you grow up you will learn more about your Aussie family and friends. This is your land and your home. You do hold dual citizenship so you are truly an Aussie and an American......an AA girl! You are special and unique and wonderful. We hope in the coming years we will be able to learn more about Australia and visit more of the country. We also hope that you will come to visit in America and get to know your cousins and your Auntie Sara and Uncle Ian and other aunts and uncles and members of our community of friends and supporters.