Plus ça change

Plus ça change, moins ça change, the French say. My daughter, Beth, who was adopted at about age 2 by my parents in order to receive Social Security for her when my dad took early retirement, was adopted by my sister, Louise, and her husband, Chris. They had been "managing conservators" of Beth since she was 6 years old and went to live with them. Beth requested this action. I'm okay with it, as I have never been much of a mother to Beth since she was 18 months old. So now she's no longer my sister legally, she's my niece.

In other news about Beth, she's accepted an assignment to go to Germany for a year beginning in May, and she says she's going to send me a ticket to visit in September. For Octoberfest, I guess. I'm very excited since I've never been overseas. I'm looking into taking a conversational German course and have resumed my regime of walking three days a week with my friend Susan.

I hope I get to meet my expat, now residing in Germany, penpal HP (whom I discovered through an ad in Alaska Man magazine back when he lived in the states), and I suppose that I should try to find my weird French penpal, Fred "we don't speak of the deads", as well. Who knows when or if I'll ever get another chance to meet either of them.

Adieu, and Auf Wiedersehen.