I am lucky in that my mother-in-law and I get along really well, and always have.  I remember, very early in my relationship with Chris, I came up to visit him during my Thanksgiving vacation — a full month and a half after the Canadian one — and yet MJ, his mom, had prepared a full dinner, complete with turkey, to welcome me to her home.  This is just the kind of woman she is.

But recently, things have changed.  I’ve found a stumbling block in our relationship.  Every time that I try to communicate with her, it somehow doesn’t work out.  I’ve emailed her every picture of my baby bump that I’ve taken, from Chris’ email account even, and yet these pictures never get through — until Chris is on the phone with her, asks if she received it, she says no, and he remails it, at which point she gets it immediately.  I sent her a card in the mail with a copy of our ultrasound picture, and two weeks later it was returned as having an ‘invalid address’, despite the fact that the address I wrote on there had been taken directly from an email she sent Chris a year ago (wrong street name, wrong zip code, yet she’s only lived in one house in the town, so this made no sense).

WHY?  WHY don’t my emails reach her?  WHY does my card have to get returned?  Is this the cosmic hand of Fate bitch-slapping me around for having a loving relationship with my spouse’s family?  It pisses me right off!