Photo, like so many others, by daughter Susan Kauffmann
I feel lucky. My son, Rafi, is loving, warm and considerate — and so is his
Son Rafi, who with wife Chandra and their Remy bring me joy
wife, Chandra. I am certainly blessed to have them, and they are doing such a great job raising my grandson, Remy, that I proudly claim all three as my own.
Then, there is Brian and his wife Rebecca. Brian claims to be my #2 son and as such, like Avis, he says he tries harder. I saw Rebecca grow up, but not Brian. I would have liked to. He always manages to make me laugh and I’d love to know where or when he developed his crazy sense of humour. There is also something very special about someone who decides to adopt YOU as a mother and I love Brian especially for that. Plus, he’s a good sport and puts up with my nonsense, and, as you can imagine, that ain’t easy. He listens patiently to how thrilled I am with this blog, and not for the first time, suggested a topic for a post — this one.
Whenever I visit #2 son Brian and his Rebecca it is my ‘birthday’ and we celebrate
Daughter Susan, who understood what this blog would mean to me before I did
Before that, however, I must attribute the whole idea of this blog, which brings me so much pleasure, to my daughter Susan. Susan suggested it to begin with, set it all up for me, taught me what little I know about managing it, and continues to help whenever I mess things up which I do regularly — very regularly. Because of her thoughtfulness and loving patience, I’ve had a grand time since she talked a reluctant me into it.
I wonder if at times Susan doesn’t feel she’s created a Frankenstein. The poor thing has had to take time out of her own busy life to rescue me again and again when the technology gets the better of me.
It was also Susan, who, seeing how excited I get about the people from other countries who visit my little blog, suggested I start keeping track of where you live. Clever girl — I started doing so in July, 2013.
This is my list so far:
Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China!!! (just today), Columbia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, France,
An outdoor market in Latvia
Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, (South) Korea, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan,
Flag of Montenegro
Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Republic, United Kingdom, United States, Viet Nam — and any day now, I may be able to add yet another.
A scene in Saudi Arabia
At the very beginning, it was a thrill to approach and then reach 500 views. After that I looked forward to 1,000; then 1,500; and now, here I am at 6,998 — 7,000 coming up! And, you are the one who makes it all possible. Thank you!
View from Over the Hill 
It’s you Muriel. That and your writing. Your ‘audience’ will continue to grow. I always look forward to you posts. Just the right length, too. 🙂
Hey, if I’m the 7,000 viewer, do I win a prize??? No, I do not feel I have created a Frankenstein, mom. On the contrary, I am very happy to have gotten you started on something that not only brings you so much pleasure, but clearly also delights many other people. They wouldn’t read it if they didn’t like it, right? Unless you, using heretofore hidden Santa-Claus-like abilities, fly around the world holding a gun to people’s heads and forcing them to read it — which one has to admit seems unlikely. Maybe you could have done that when you had a measly 500 readers, but 7,000? I think not. Anyway, it is also extremely gratifying to me to be able to help you with something, given all that you have done for us throughout our lives, and all that you had to put up with from ME when I was younger! Keep them blog posts comin’, mom, — and never worry about asking for help. Besides that, you do amazingly well with the blog technology overall — very impressive. Love ya.
Muriel, this blog amazed me (with the incredible number of different countries you have connected with natives of!); and then, as your blogs tend to, touched my heart with your personal stories about your “birth children and adopted children”! As Susan says:—“-keep them blog posts comin!!”
I enjoy reading your stories. Each time I read, I am amazed at creative writing skills. You are a clever writer Muriel, and that’s the reason you have so many readers from around the world!