Do you have a friend you can talk to about....I don't know....life stuff?

[Condessa]

I have my dh, my mom, and my oldest sister.  I don't share as much as I used to with others.  I just felt like I was always dragging people down.  Even when I am not feeling particularly down about things.  Like last week I was at a ladies' church event and was chatting with an acquaintance and a stranger, and things got awkward really fast when a conversation about her surgery recovery led to her asking me why I had so much experience with physical therapy--and ended with her crying after I told her about ds.  He is doing alright these days.  It's not great, but he can run and climb and play, and his medication is working, and the appointments have spaced out enough that he has time to spend doing some kid stuff.  An incident like that leaves me thinking that maybe I just shouldn't talk to people.  Her knowing more about my life just brought us both down.

[Hannah]

Nobody local. 

My two sisters and I are close, but they live overseas.  It has been lovely seeing them again as they visited after the pandemic.  It makes a huge difference to have the time to visit in-person vs online conversations.

Two good friends have moved away - one emigrated to Australia and the other to another province a 2-hour flight away.  She'll be visiting next week and I look forward to some good conversations.   We Zoom weekly, but its not the same as in-person and we've been saying "I'll tell you all when I see you".

I have a local friend that I've known for years, she also homeschooled and I still see her at least twice per month.  We share 'stuff', but they have different worldviews and although we fully respect each other's differences,  it never feels as if the connection is quite the same.