Hello, my friends, and thank you for your messages, GTO, AS and Wendylon. I have a post today about something that might impact (or have already impacted) some of you.

I received an email from Joe's mom saying Joe "is a in a new relationship and has a little baby on the way. In an effort to support him and his new life, it is important that I begin to phase out some of my close contact with you and get better acquainted with the OW. Facebook will be my first vehicle of change. This is difficult for me, but I hope you will understand why I must cut our ties on Facebook." Then she said we could email "occasionally."

My first thought was WTF. She was the one to say I would always be her daughter-in-law no matter what, and I was happy we had been able to keep our relationship going. I've been calling her, writing to her, and being super nice, open and honest. So I was deeply hurt. My guess is that Joe continues having R problems with the OW and he told her that many of their issues are about her being "terrified" of me. Regardless, I consider this to be a poor decision. Couldn't help passing the judgment.

After a while, I started asking myself different questions:

1. What can I learn from this? I can learn to deal with people acting in ways that don't make sense to me and with unexpected changes in people's behavior. I can learn to not let other's people's behaviors impact me negatively.

2. What is the reality of this situation? Is my MIL newly evil/mean? No. She's acting out of her mind programming that tells her this is what she has to do--whether that is kind/wise or not.

3. What are my next steps? Well, I don't think I want to email her "occasionally." I think she pretty much decided she wants me out of her life. Which prompted me to think:

--This will work out in my best interest in the future. I don't know when or how, but it will. I will look back at this and say, wow, I'm so glad she (and probably her side of the family--which might follow) cut ties with me.

Questions: I'm wondering whether I need to continue in touch with the rest of the family. I'm guessing they'll all do the same or will ignore me, which I think it's rude and immature, but that's what people do. Any thoughts?

I appreciate you guys reading. Writing about this helps me sort out my feelings.