Thursday, October 13, 2011

Long distance family

Kayla and Sofia at the San Diego Zoo

My husband could not begin to attempt naming each of his first cousins. I'm sure he hasn't even met all of them once. He just has so many [I think close to 100]. So I guess it is hard to blame him. But whenever I feel shocked about that, I think about this beautiful family: 


Sorry - I'm not trying to be vain by calling the people in a photo beautiful when I'm in the photo. I mean all the beautiful blonds. The man on the far left is Bryce. He is my father's cousin. Second from the left is Jolene, his wife. On the far right is Aimee, their youngest daughter. I think that makes Aimee my second cousin, once removed. I've known her since she was a little baby when she already had gorgeous blond hair, but back then, it stuck up in spikes. 

I was the flower girl in Bryce and Jolene's wedding. I recently unpacked this from a box from home:


This was the thank you gift I got for being their flower girl. It was one of my most "precious" ;) treasures when I was little. They've always felt like an important part of my family and life, even though we're not even first cousins. But this year they were more important to me than ever. While I might actually recommend that young married couples live in a city away from their family ["leave and cleave!"], I think I feel like it's best to live close to family for the long term. After five years on our own in the Bay Area, and an indefinite future on our own in Maine, it was a true blessing to live in the same city as my second cousins and second cousins once removed!

Age wise, I'm roughly in the middle between the parents and the kids in this family, which presents a great inter-generational opportunity in two directions. I was blessed by my elders' wisdom and discipleship, and could also attempt to be a blessing and encouragement in a similar way to their kids. I think things work in the inverse direction as well. But half way through the year, we got to see that trade off trickle down to a fourth level, as the kids started to take care of and bless on my baby too. 


I know many people who live a transient life style like ours make family members out of the strangers they meet, and I feel like we've done a bit of that too. But I am particularly grateful for this clan, because amongst all of the other things they could offer, they were able to share memories and history that belonged to me that I didn't even know. They were able to tell me about my great-grandparents [Bryce's grandparents], they were able tell me things I didn't know about my grand-parents and great aunt/uncle, they were even able to tell me about myself before I had a sufficiently conscious mind to form my own memories. Family is special like that. 

It doesn't hurt that this family is particularly gifted at blessing people and showing hospitality [Bryce is a pastor - so his gifting is literally spiritual!]. They welcomed us into their home, the showed us around the city, they took us to fun events, they visited us in the hospital. But most of all, I was just so invigorated every time we got together because of all of the great conversations we were able to have with each other. Each member of this family has passionate visions for how they want to bless people and God with their lives, and it was always exciting to listen and discuss those dreams with them. 

I thank God for the opportunity to share this year with Bryce, Jolene, Chris, Kayla, Lanae, and Aimee. For the chance to have some short-distance family for a bit. I hope that longer distance won't make us too much of strangers as we move into the future!








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