[Overwhelmed!]

My family lives about a 4 hour flight away. I've lived out of state for 8 years now. It was really hard initially to leave my 5 siblings, niece, and 4 nephews. We've all worked hard at keeping in touch and this is even more important to me now that we have Jacob.

Here's what we've done to strengthen the long-distance family relationships:

1) Phone calls almost daily- 2 of my siblings have Sprint, like I do, so we have Sprint PCS to PCS anytime minutes. It's awesome!

2) Trips back and forth- I fly back at least twice a year. I flew back with Jacob when he was 4 weeks old to introduce him to my family. My siblings come my way a lot too. There are times when my siblings have pitched in money to buy me a ticket back home for special events (baptism, 1st Communion, Dad's retirement party, etc).

3) Web cam- my brother and I both have webcams and we used them a lot when his 1st child, Sam, was born last July.

4) Cards, letters, and pictures in the mail.

5) Camcorder recordings- I have these sent to me periodically so I can "watch" what my niece/nephews are up to.

6) Weekly reading hour- every Sunday at 4 p.m. I place a call to my oldest sister's house and I read for an hour with my nephew and niece. We both purchase the book of choice and each week we take turns reading aloud to each other over the phone. We really look forward to this Sunday afternoon ritual!

It definitely takes some work on both ends, but the rewards make it so worth the effort!