I wouldn’t say that my birth dad and I have a close relationship. Perhaps respectful and distant are better adjectives. We don’t talk for months, even more than a year at times. Every year on my birthday, I receive a bouquet of flowers. We’ve had some great interactions, I’ve met much of my paternal family, but we both seem to be comfortable with keeping each other at arm’s length.

I’ve recently had a new reason to reach out, to re-establish contact. That reason is the little monkey rapidly coming to full gestation in my tummy. How do you tell someone that is barely a parent that he’s going to be a grandparent? Apparently with an email and sonogram pictures…. He took it well, maintained contact, sounded happy even. Will this be a new start to this somewhat tenuous bond? I guess time will tell. And I know a little more effort could be put forth on my part. Maybe this time I’ll follow through.