In 1979, after 37 weeks of waiting-17 of which were in the hospital- Graham
and I became the very proud parents of Scott, Geoffrey and Cameron. They
averaged 5 lbs each. Scott and Geoff are identical. At the age of 4 weeks,
Graham had to leave for a 6 months "single status" stint in Malaysia and I
decided to take the boys from our home in Melbourne, Australia to my parents
house in Maryland USA. My parents came out for the birth and helped us all
travel back to MD. But traveling with infants was a breeze.....all they
did was sleep! We spent the 6 months watching them grow and writing letters.
This was long before email and digital cameras! At the end of the 6 months
the boys and I traveled to London to meet up with Graham and see his
relatives for the first time. We had a lovely 2 weeks driving around England
and Scotland. After 2 more weeks in the US, we returned to Melbourne and
I was alone for the first time every day with the three boys. I was also
pregnant again! Duncan completed our family in 1980.
We have traveled all over, living in Malaysia, England and the US for brief
stints to 2 years. We finally settled down in one place, Sydney, in 1986.
The boys have been able to make and keep good friends here. They completed
high school and went on to further education in Sydney. They are 24 and 23
years old now. Scott is a builder, Geoff is a psych nurse, Cameron is a
jewllery designer, Duncan is a pilot for QANTAS. All very different occupations
but arrived at on their own. They have always been very independent yet very
close to each other. They share common friends and have separate friends too.
All four would come to each other's side in an emergency in a heartbeat.
They all still live at home, we have a big house. Housing is very expensive
in Sydney and most of their friends still live at home too. In a few years
I expect they will all have bought their first homes.
We never separated them out into 3+1. It was always "the boys". One thing we never did, and we talked about it before they were born and to their teachers each year, was to compare them with each other. I found that hard to do at times but I stuck to our resolve not to compare. Maybe as a result there is not a jealous bone in their bodies and maybe that would have been how they grew up to be anyway, we'll never know. But it was something we were certain about. I had seen other children compared before (I was a teacher, am now the principal). You know,......" Why can't you be like your brother/sister? He/She tries so hard" . I never wanted that for my kids.
Living so far away from Grandparents meant making a special effort to keep
in touch and visit. We have traveled over to the US (Graham's parents
had passed away when he was in his teens) many times over the 24 years
both as a family and sending 2 kids at a time (when they were 14). It
brought a very special relationship to their lives. Sadly both my parents
are now gone but the love they shared with the boys will never be forgotten.
