Mothering from far away

It's a time honored tradition for Moms to send care packages to their far away children.  We've always done it.  No matter where they are in the world we want them to feel our loving arms stretching out to comfort them.  That's a tall order when your child is on the other side of the planet.  Sure, we skype every week, and with email, text, and facetime, we stay in contact in ways that were not possible not too many years ago.  We should be grateful that we have so many technological advances that we can utilize.  Time was, the only way to connect with your far away child was to either make a very expensive long distance call, which necessitated short conversations, and a hurried feeling, or by writing letters that could take a week, sometimes more, to get there, and then you have to wait for a reply.  It was a very frustrating process.

Right now we have a daughter in South Korea teaching English.  This is her third international stint, after having spent several months in London on a study abroad, and a summer in Taiwan on an internship, she is now going to be living in Korea for up to 2 years, perhaps more if she decides she loves it.  

We also have a daughter that is planning to head to South Korea to also teach English once she graduates college.  This daughter also has been to Korea twice, once on a study abroad, and then for an internship/direct enrollment at Kyunghee University.  Our son is also attempting to be accepted for a program in Japan to also teach English.  

So, while long distance communication is still far from perfect, it will have to fill all the gaps for our children.  When they are sick, or sad, or lonely, or frustrated, or just need a hug, it will have to be a cyber hug.  

That doesn't account for packages, and when you look at most delivery services you wonder why anyone would even bother to send a package at all.  The average price is almost two hundred dollars, some are over that.  Thankfully, the US Post Office is more reasonable in it's pricing, at just under one hundred.  Still, when she gets her care package, it will be well worth the cost just to know she is getting that little bit of home so far away.