Day #16: Give A Phone Call To Grandparents

Day #16: Give A Phone Call To Grandparents 1

Our girls are fortunate enough to have 6 great grandparents alive. We called four of them this evening. Then, we called Stephanie's parents and Skyped my parents. The Skype call mostly consisted of our two girls fighting for the camera's attention as they held up their drawings/books and talked about what they had been doing lately.

None of our calls took an enormous amount of time. We talked about the campground where we are living, our departure for Austin in the morning, and everyone wanted to know how my dental implant was healing.

We all said, "we love you...and we miss you."

Calling loved ones on the phone is a simple way to show appreciation and thoughtfulness. Stephanie and I like to remind ourselves that if we think of someone and say, "I should give them a call"...then we really should give them a call.

Do you use Skype? Also, do your parents/grandparents text or use Facebook?

14 comments on “Day #16: Give A Phone Call To Grandparents”

  1. First of all, glasses on little kids are just plain adorable! My parents skype/text/facebook and so we use that as one way to stay in touch (they live in michigan), but my grandpa (only living grandparent still alive) is pushing 90 and likes to stick to good ol' fashion phone calls....which we both do a good job about making frequent.

  2. So amazing to have 6 great grandparents left! We had 5... until this last year. Now we have 2. It's been rough.
    I have never actually used Skype... I hear it's awesome, but don't even know where to start!
    Grandma's are on Facebook, but don't really do texting. One Grandpa sends pictures of cool cars by text for Cory while he's out and about with his job!

  3. We love Skype! My whole family lives all over the United States (parents in NH, sister in FL, sister in NY, two brothers in Phoenix, AZ, one brother is Tucson, AZ and another brother in CO) and Markus' family lives all over the world (parents in Uganda, Africa, sister in northern Germany, sister in southern Germany, sister in Austria, grandmother in Switzerland, brother in the Canary Islands, Spain). It is SUCH a great way to keep in contact, to talk, and for them to see the kiddos grow since we don't get to see one another regularly. Most of the siblings are on Facebook. I keep the blog updated so they can see what is going on as well.

    In this day and age of technology, tweeting, blogging, Facebooking, texting...I must say, I still prefer a hand written letter or phone call over a text or tweet. BUT how fortunate are we that we can communicate with others so readily?!

  4. Six great grandparents is an incredible blessing! We have four, and have various methods of keeping in touch with them. My grandmother spent several weeks with us one summer (nutty decision, being that we live in Phoenix!) and while she was with us we upgraded her cell phone so she could receive and send pictures and videos, and I taught her to text. She now requires daily pictures of her great-granddaughters and at least one text! We also call about once a week, but she prefers texting. We've got all members of our family on Skype, and that's the girls' favorite way to keep in touch with great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts and cousins. We are also able to occasionally Skype one of our dearest friends who's an Army chaplain serving in Afghanistan right now, which I still find unspeakably cool. My sisters and cousins use Facebook, but it hasn't extended to the older generations of the family yet.

  5. What a lovely way to give. And receive that blessing of so many greats and grands. We have skyped a few times with my busy sister who lives inOcala, FL and doesn't get to see the girls. I have loved connecting via facebook with so much extended family (especially cousins who are parents now too) scattered all over the country. Thanks for the reminder to just "give a call." Tricky with those time zones and bedtimes sometimes...

  6. My parents live in the dark ages and still have dial up. We barely e-mail. My mom is on Facebook and checks it occasionally but we do not Skype. That would be really awesome, but really hard to convince them of that! We do talk on the phone at least weekly, and the kids are getting really good at talking on the phone. Skype is an awesome thing though. When Bryan was on remote assignment for 10 months we would have been able to Skype every day if we wanted to. The kids were able to see him at least once a week on the computer and that helped a LOT. Our littlest was 9 months when he left and 1 1/2 when he got back. Becasue she had seen him on the computer, she know exactly who he was and there was no "getting to know Daddy" which was incredible!

  7. We love skype! We first got hooked on it back in 2005 when we were living in Thailand, and it was a really affordable way to make international phone calls to keep up with people back home. Now we use the video feature all the time-our kids used to think Grandmother and Granddaddy lived in the computer! LOL

  8. We really need to sign -up for Skype! We have been researching web cams, any suggestions? My kids talk to my mom at least one time a day. We put together a package with pictures of the kids, drawings that they make and letters to my grandma. She gets very lonely since my grandpa passed away....so when she receives the package in the mail...it totally makes her day!

    *We are loving your daily posts and are thinking about you guys often!!

  9. WOW - 6 great grandparents alive - that is awesome! We have started using Skype with my hubby's family but it is mostly used for everyone to see everyone and not a lot of "real" talking goes on. I wish my hubby could get his dad to use it a lot more b/c our phone bill would be a lot less!

  10. We love Skype. And I love that when my kids do get to see their grandparents in person, there's no "Get to know you again" time. No shyness, just instant loves.

  11. we chat with tim's parents out in southern california almost once a week via skype. we LOVE it...it makes us feel so much more connected!

  12. We skype with both sets grandparents. We tend to skype more with my parents than my husbands because they seem to enjoy it more.

    You guys are so lucky to have so many of YOUR grandparents alive still. We just lost our last grandparent last June. I lost my last grandparent a few years ago, before our kids were born. For the last 3ish years of her life, I called my grandmother every day at 7 pm. Boy did she look forward to that. And boy do I miss it. We didn't usually talk very long, but she knew I would call her every single day. Honestly I still look back on it and am so glad I took the time to do it. I wish I had started calling her daily earlier.

    Both my husband and I talk to our mothers daily and I know they look forward to those calls. It really is such a simple thing and means so much. It doesn't have to be a long conversation to mean a lot to someone.

  13. Skype is the only real line between my kids and their maternal grandparents. My almost three year old will occasionally talk on the telephone with his paternal grandfather. I talk to my mom about once a week; sometimes twice with Vonage. Love Vonage and Skype...both make living overseas just a little closer.

  14. We keep talking about trying Skype, but haven't yet. My laptop doesn't have a built-in camera - so that's a "necessary" on the list for the new one I hope to be able to get this year and then we'll probably try it!

    My kids lost their last great-grandparent last fall when my Grandmother died. My husband's mother passed away from cancer before we were married but his Dad remarried so my kids have 6 grandparents - My Dad & Step-mom, Mom & Step-Dad and Hubby's Dad & Step-mom. We stay in touch pretty well with most of them. My birth-mother and I didn't get to know each other until after I was an adult and we don't stay in touch well, I need to work on that.

Our family spent 2011 traveling the USA in an RV, striving to intentionally "give every day" for the glory of God. We interviewed CEOs of nonprofits and served alongside over 40 organizations and churches.

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