For the past two weeks my wife’s parents have been at our house for a visit.

They are on their way back to Canada now, and the "two weeks" they have spent with us has seemed more like "two days."

The time has passed very quickly and we were very sad to see them leave.

It’s become a bit of a tradition – each time we have a child, my in-laws travel from their home in Canada to our home in South Texas.

This was their fifth trip.

The first one was in the year 2000 to see the "Texas wedding." There were three more trips in honor of each grandchild’s arrival and also a fifth one thrown in there somewhere "just for fun."

They have been a great help to us over these past two weeks, caring for the children, cleaning the house, cooking, mowing the yard, and even helping sort out our messy garage!

It’s very hard for families to be separated by so many miles and I do appreciate the sacrifice my wife has made by leaving her hometown and home country to be with her husband and start a family in Texas. I also appreciate the sacrifice her family has made in giving us their blessing and having to watch us drive south together as newlyweds on that day almost seven years ago.

Some families are very fortunate and they all live close to one another they get to spend time with one another very often.

But then there are other families who live close to one another, but are separated by differences that go beyond geography.

When I stop to think about the many families who have to deal with "Mom" or "Dad" away from home serving their country in a foreign land, sometimes for a year or even longer, it makes me proud and appreciative of their sacrifice, but I also wonder how the families are able to make this work.

It may be unfortunate that we are so far away from our Canadian family, but the sadness we feel when they leave causes me to realize how blessed we are to have the kind of family that we do miss so badly when they are gone.

There may be thousands of miles between us physically, but in our hearts, we are always very, very close.