Being an uncle rocks

I am going to keep this short, short, short. All I am going to say is: for the moment, the custody battle is resolved. It was looking like it might go ugly, but certain realities got it resolved, and...my nephew's daughter is coming home to live with us. In fact, she's already here.

When my nephew's marriage broke up, and his wife left with his daughter, it was a blow to him but also to me. Despite some flaws around here, I had gotten used to thinking of this house as a family, and wanted it very badly to continue. I missed my great-niece like crazy. She's a bundle of fun, smart and willful, and the opportunity to help bring another little person through childhood and into adulthood was wonderful and exciting. Then, suddenly, gone. Now she's back, none the worse for wear, and things feel right again. Maybe her mother isn't here, but at least the house feels like a family again.

I feel sorry for his wife. I do. I can't think of anything more wrenching than a mother letting go of her child. That really bothers me, and I wish circumstances were different so we could all exist in the same space. We can't, though, and what we have now is the next-best thing for everyone involved.

This is a substitute for all the political crap I could be writing, by the way. Right now nothing of any great importance is happening politically (except for the Supremes deciding that rich candidates have special rights poor candidates don't), and there was something about gun rights, and someone called Barack Obama "John Kerry with a tan," and a few other things, but you know, that all gets hashed out endlessly in the blogosphere. If I have a unique viewpoint on that, I'll let you know, but in the meantime, this is just the latest news from Scotsylvania.