Actually, I emailed her that I was in the early stages of planning to move out of the house, and was there anything in it that she wanted.

Then, after that, she wanted her mother as another grandmother for her kids, and she was ready to consider me as I am and try to accept me like that. It's turning out, I think, that she still wants a mom and I can really appreciate that because I wanted one, too. I'm the one she's got and so far it seems like she's willing to try to make the best of it. As am I.

She is NOT willing to feed me with reassurances when I am feeling insecure. So that's something I have to understand and learn to pull back from. But I learned how to do without that in the 4 years she wasn't speaking to me, so it's not really that hard now. Just a little temporarily difficult and awkward sometimes when the impulse, and an action, rears its needy head.

But, we're both learning, willing to learn, want it to work. And that feels good and hopeful.