Cousins

I have alot of cousins, more than anybody else I've ever met. On my dad's side, there are six of us grandchildren, but on my mom's side, there are 30, which means I have 30 cousins. That is alot. I always felt kind of gypped when it came to my cousins. We never lived near any of them, so we didn't have that kind of familiar relationship. The most we saw any of them was on average once a year. There was also the age differences. Between my oldest and youngest cousins is about a 40 year age gap, which means I have cousins younger than my some of my children. Most of the cousins lived spread apart, some in other countries.It was this way up until about 6 years ago when one of my younger cousins got married. Now, this was no ordinary wedding- she included so many family members in her wedding party, and just about all of the family was able to make it to her wedding. It was one big party weekend! I was able to talk to and get to know several of my cousins that weekend.
Enter Facebook. About 2 or 3 years ago, a bunch of us got on Facebook, and (to me anyways) it seemed to open the door to getting to know these relatives better. Now instead of waiting 5 or so years to get to talk to everyone, I knew what they were doing on a daily basis. I could look at their current pictures and see how big their kids were getting. When my aunt died unexpectedly last summer, we were able to rally around and pray for her husband and children even though some of us were unable to attend the funeral. It's the most I've ever talked to some of them- I feel like I know the majority of them so much better.

I received a box in the mail a few days ago from one of my cousins, who before Facebook and blogs, I did not know. She sent me some baby clothes, hand me downs from her daughter born last summer. It was such a sweet surprise and while the baby clothes are awesome, what meant even more to me was the thought behind the gift.

Family is a wonderful gift from God.