the thankful project day 10 : a memory

Before I share a memory I’m thankful for I have to give you some preceding factors. In my family there are four of us siblings. My oldest sister is Steph, then there is Holly followed by Luke followed by the youngest dearest most precious one, me! That’s right! I am the youngest child. All you youngest, can I get an A to the-men for how awesome it is? I love being the youngest. Your siblings help take care of you, you get to learn from them, watch their life and sometimes the parents were a bit easier on you.  I took full advantage of the awesome blessing of being the youngest sibling. Anyone else know what I’m talking about?

Well, one evening during the fall of 2011 Alisha and I were driving home from a Bible class. I specifically remember her asking me if my siblings (all married at that time) were going to have children. I replied ‘I hope not anytime soon because, let’s be real, I’m that baby of the family and if a niece / nephew comes along all the attention I get will be directed right toward that kid’. Plus, come on, we have all seen those annoying aunts who dote all over their nieces / nephews. Gag. Anyways, back to the story - as soon as I finished telling Alisha the true vainness in my heart my phone rang and it was my brother. He asked me what I was doing and of course I didn’t tell him how vain I just was: I told him I was driving home from Bible class. Who would have ever guessed but he told me I was going to be an aunt. My status? Gone. I was sad for about .005 seconds and knew that a little kid would be great.

Soon after finding out I was going to be someone’s most favorite aunt I was hit with the reality that if I moved to Korea I would miss seeing that kid’s first 8 months of life. It crossed my mind to stay but I knew Korea was something I needed. Before I left I decided I would go visit my brother and sister-in-law who lived in Seattle. They had a sonogram while I was there and invited me to go. Heck to the yes! I was pumped. My brother and sister-in-law didn’t want to know the sex of their baby but lucky me, having seen many many sonograms from working at a group home with pregnant teenagers, knew that the little baby in there was a boy! He was a boy with the fattest cheeks and as soon as I saw him the tears started flowing. I looked around and man, my brother and sister-in-law weren’t crying, only me. I was already starting to be that aunt. 

Well I went to Korea and Elliot was born in June. Nephews have a way of making you a complete softy and being half a world apart from the newest addition to our family was super hard. Time passed though and I came home to Kansas. I soon boarded a plane and headed to Seattle to meet this cute little boy with fat cheeks. Sadly, he was asleep so I had to wait until the next morning. If you know me, I am not a morning person in any way. However, I bolted out of bed at 5am to meet this little guy. My sister-in-law filmed it and now I get to share with you a memory I’m so very thankful for.

Now, I’m that crazy aunt and there is a video and hundreds of pictures to prove it. Actually, I think I take it to the next level but oh well. I have two nephews now and I wished I had a video of me meeting Zachary too cuz I love him just as much!