Cousins

My entire childhood I never really saw my cousins. There was the once - maybe twice - a year visit to Georgia where the rest of our extended family lived. Our little Harper group was in Louisiana separated from the others. We often times wished, dreamed, that we could be a part of their lives. That we could know our cousins on a daily basis and spend time with our grandparents in the ways that our cousins got to. But, look where we are today--we have all met our spouses and are living in happily married homes. Our lives would have looked totally different had our parents moved the family "back to Georgia" like they so often talked about.

Today, as many of you know, my sister, Danyelle lives just down the street from us. She has four kids, I have two. They all absolutely adore each other. My boys wake up asking to play with them and be with them nearly every single day of the week. Whatever social event comes up, they want to know if Caleb and Alyssa (the oldest of my sister's four) are coming. Whatever family event takes place, they want to make sure Caleb and Alyssa will be there.

Last night, Danyelle and I switched a kid for a couple of hours. Titus went to their house and Caleb came to ours. When I went to get Titus from Danyelle's, of course he did not want to come home. But, when we got in the car he was saying to me -- "I wike 'syssa. 'Syssa bahwy nice to me." How sweet is that? Caleb ended up just spending the night with the boys -- which they were elated over. When I put them to bed, of course, they giggled for over an hour before finally falling asleep. Tim and I reminisced about being with our individual cousins as children while we were listening to them. The laughter coming from that room caused us to take a little trip down memory lane....

We are so glad to have the cousins so close...I am happy that my kids will grow up knowing them and being best friends with them....how cool is that?!