Birthday Dinner

On Wednesday night we went to dinner at Jake's grandma's house. It was his mother's birthday and Grandma had decided that it was just about time that we all make peace. I was a little nervous about the whole affair, but Jake said he was willing to give it a shot so I decided to just go with the flow.

Okay... let me digress for just a moment. Here is the reader's digest version of the background of why dinner with his mom is so monumental. A year and a half ago Jake's parents got divorced. It was not a pretty divorce and feelings were hurt and mean things were said. Jake, needing someone to be angry with, picked his mother. (It's not important why at this point, since it's so far in the past.)

Shortly after his parents started divorce proceedings Julie started dating someone. At that point Jake's anger switched from all at Julie to mostly at this guy and some still at her. I think it was easier to blame him than to just accept that his parents were over and trying to find new lives for themselves.

Since that point their relationship has been relatively non-existent. They have spoken maybe 3 or 4 times and until the fair, had not seen one another. SOO, when Grandma called and invited us to dinner, my main concern was whether Jake could let go of his anger and just have a nice dinner with everyone.

As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about. Thing went wonderfully. When we arrived Julie's boyfriend was at home taking a shower so Jake had about 20-30 minutes of time with his mom to sort of catch up and be comfortable in the moment. Once Rick arrived things continued smoothly. I think Jake has finally let go of all the anger and resentment that he has been carrying around for the last year and a half.

My hope is that now that we have had this monumental dinner things will continue to get better from here. I'm not sure how it has affected Julie, but I know that the last year and a half have had a very negative affect on Jake. He loves his mom a lot and I think there are a lot of things in his life that he has missed sharing with her. This has been like a cloud hanging over his life and I hope now the storm is finally starting to clear.