This is going to sound strange, but sometimes I wish I didn't love my children so much.

You see, it's because I love them so much that I spend so much time missing them. Pauline and Virgile are two of my very favorite people in the world, and I cannot imagine being any more proud of them than I am. They are both intelligent, good-looking, hard-working caring people, and neither one of them smells bad.

<em>Editor's note: Where did that come from?</em>

I'm not sure. I think I was afraid if I didn't lighten things up a little, I might start weeping.

[caption id="attachment_1562" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Pauline, Lex and Maddie"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1562" title="387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>[/caption]

Pauline is the older of the two, and she has done a wonderful job of trying to do the impossible -- what they used to call having it all.

She has a good marriage, two wonderful children and is one of the rising stars in the diplomatic corps. She is nearing the end of her third overseas tour -- Cameroon, China and Indonesia -- and her reward is that she'll spend three years living in the same time zone with us, albeit a little farther to the south.

She's going to Jamaica, mon.

Maddie will be 4 years old in September, starting her final year of preschool, and baby Lex will celebrate his first birthday in November. By the way, I also wish I didn't love my grandchildren so much. Same reason.

Virgile is nearly five years younger than Pauline, so in some respects he has been following in her footsteps. Then again, he has blazed some trails of his own at the same time.

My son started out with the goal of becoming the next great jazz saxophonist. He was damn good, too, but about halfway through college he made the tough decision that he was only good, not great, and it might make more sense to try something else.

[caption id="attachment_1563" align="alignright" width="300" caption="from left, Joe, Virgile and Sterling"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DSC_0432.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1563" title="DSC_0432" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DSC_0432-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

He wound up following the same route his sister had, into the diplomatic corps, and in 2010 he and his wife Sterling left for their first tour.

Give the kid some credit. He didn't pick a boring post for his first. He has been in Athens, Greece, for about 18 months, and will be returning to Washington for language training for his next post later this year.

Virgile is still a few years from turning 30, and he has already received two compliments that are nicer things than anyone has said about me in my entire life.

In his first year of college, one of his roommates took us aside and told us that Virgile was the nicest person he had met in his entire life.

Wow.

Then last year, in his first job evaluation, his boss wrote that Virgile was the finest young foreign service officer he had known in 20 years.

Dang.

I'd have given up a toe -- not an important one -- to have had anyone ever say something like that about me. But actually, I learned something when I heard that second compliment. When you're a parent, I think you're happier to hear someone compliment your kids than to hear somebody compliment you.

You see, you get the joy of it and you get to keep all your toes.

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