Making Family Special

Our house is full this week.  We are blessed by a visit by Pete’s Aunt Betty, his cousin Katy and her two kids Kacie(9) and Kyle (5).  Each morning I have woken up to hearing the door chimes go off announcing that Kacie and Emily, our early wakers, are headed out with Lucky (the dog.)  It warms my heart to get out of bed and watch them from my window.  While Emily never, NEVER takes Lucky out in the morning without some serious begging on my behalf, she eagerly is sharing this duty with Kacie.  Watching them head down to the pond, pj clad, hand –in-hand is so beautiful to me.   They are cousins, and friends.

This has been a week to think about family.  With our recent move thousands of miles away from family, building relationships with any of our family is going to take effort, a lot of effort.  It was easy in Denver for my kids to go to Grandma’s house which was only a short walk from ours. It was easy to schedule sleepovers with cousins who lived 20 minutes away.  Now it is not so easy.  This week has reminded me that it is worth it though.  It is worth the planning, and the loud house brimming with kids, and used up frequent flyer miles. 

I treasure the fact that Betty and Katy were willing to pile two kids in the car and drive a LOT of hours from Florida to spend time with us.  The little kid days are flying by fast I realize as Kyle , who was just the baby, talks to me about baseball and John Deere, and Sarah has squeaked by both Aunt Betty and Aunt Katy (a fabulous accomplishment to her, while an inevitable to us!) 

I am reminded of two aunts that invested in Pete and I as kids.  Aunts that visited and made us grow up feeling special.  Funny, they both were named Aunt Sue.  Pete’s loved on him in a powerful way that kept his father’s memory alive and made him know a life bigger than he saw was actually his future, not just his dream.  She handed over her first computer to a kid, and let him take it apart just to put it back together again.  She loved him.

My Aunt Sue put a little ballet dancer on a plane to San Francisco to sit next to her in a balcony box of the Jaffe Ballet’s performance of the Nutcracker.  She took me backstage to meet the cast. She gave me a little red satin pair of pointe shoes to hang on my Christmas tree when I went back home.  I still hang them on my tree each year, probably my favorite ornament to hang. 

Having the cousins and aunts here this week, I am challenged to think how I can be that special aunt.  How can I pour into these kids and some special ones back in Denver.  I want them all to know that they are loved.  They are some truly special kiddos.  I know I am not doing a fabulous job at that right now.  I am challenged in that. 

But of course our God is so good. So providing.  I was blessed to be introduced to Katy’s friend Hope this week.  She blogs at TheFlourishing Tree.  She blogs on Monday’s about being an aunt.  An intentional, special aunt.  An Aunt Sue.  I can’t wait to keep reading her posts. 

Were you blessed by a special aunt or uncle growing up? Are you being that special aunt or uncle now?  I would love to hear how.   I would love some suggestions or inspiration.