Old Memories to Make New Ones...

So things are moving along... My trip to Joplin made me realize that I need to go back and to continue helping in what ever capacity I can.  I am thankful that God has given me the resources and the contacts to do this.  I am currently working on a video with the pictures that I took to post and present to generate interest in getting a group to go down later in the summer.  God has been good to me of recent and I can't help but share that with others.

Earlier this week, I reconnected with my cousin, Monte.  Monte was my favorite cousin growing up (of the older ones).  He is actually my second cousin, so he is really my mom's cousin on her dad's side (Dickey).  His mom is my mother's aunt and my grandpa's baby sister. However, my mom and his mom are about 6 years or so apart in age, so we basically were raised as cousins and I really looked up to him like a brother when I was little. He taught me a lot of things (like how to properly throw a football(, mostly good but sometimes bad (as in my first bad word), but the biggest thing about him, that I still see in him is his enormous heart.  I credit my Aunt Pat with that because she is the same way. It's nice to look back and realize several things: most of your family loves you unconditionally, if you have a strong bond with someone it isn't hard to pick up where you left off, and family is important and becomes more so as you grow older. I think the neatest thing about talking to him is that he remembers the day I was brought home from the adoption agency and told me about how excited he was to hold me. Sometimes we need those little reminders that we are important to people in ways that we never imagined.

My hope is that as Chloe grows up that she realizes how important family is.  We were always so close knit growing up.  In fact, until I was an adult, all of my grandparents were alive and I even had one great-grandparent alive after I was married (the first time).  To give you an example of how close our family is, we never really knew the differences between first and second cousins.  In fact, some of the younger second cousins called my aunts, their aunts. Of course we are all grown up now and we have moved away, but there is something that always draws us back.  I think for me is the familiarity of home.  Though I have made my home here in Wisconsin, I will always be a Missouri girl at heart.  Most of my family is there and I can't help but be drawn back.

Let me share one more story about Monte.  When I was little, the sun rose and set on him (in my 4 year old eyes at least).  He tried to teach me to swim in the pool at his house.  I was deathly afraid of the water but he used to put my sister Rachael and I on his back and swim around the pool so that we would not be afraid.  He was always patient with us even when we snuck into his room and got into his stuff.  I think that it was probably horrific to see two four or five year olds toss your Atari joystick around and go through your drawers looking for "girl" toys. He would just sit there patiently until we left. I personally would have flipped out when I was his age, but he would read to us and even show us the proper way to play games like Pong and Frogger. He would try to play pool at our Grandparent's house, only to have us move the balls around or even screw up his game. See our idea of pool was to forget the pool cue.  We just enjoyed trying to slam the balls in the pockets as hard as we could. Usually someone ended up crying because they had their fingers smashed by a wayward billiard ball.

 We also tended to get in the way alot because we wanted to be included in what the "big kids" did. I have to say that was probably a big thing for a teenage boy to do and allow us to irritate him, but he NEVER yelled at us.  He just kept on trying to show us how to use the pool cues, but I do remember him getting frustrated when we decided that the pool chalk made good eye-shadow and then we tried to put it on him!!! Another time we decided that since he had long eyelashes (secretly we were jealous of them... I still am!!!), that we needed to take my Grandmother Rosalie's mascara to them.  He saw us wielding the tube and we didn't see him for the rest of the afternoon.  He actually ran away from us... We must have been pretty scary but I am pretty sure that he had enough of our nonsense! I also suspect that he went down to a neighbor kid's house to get away from his "awful" little cousins whose idea of fun was trying to put makeup on him!!!

 Yes, we have other cousins and we love them as well, but reconnecting with him this week was a big thing to me.  It brings back good memories of swimming and eating Popsicles in the summer at Aunt Pat's house and some not so great memories like when my Grandpa Dickey or my cousin Amanda died, when I was three. But I think the biggest thing is that it reminds you that no matter where we all are in life, home is where your family is. As I go through this weight loss journey, it is nice to know that I don't only have the support of my friends, but of my family!!!!