We miss “The Cousins!” I don’t know when we gave them such a lofty title, but at some point we began calling Tim’s brother’s children “The Cousins.” The kids have other cousins, my brother has three children and Tim’s sister has three as well, but neither of them have been so dubbed. Who can explain how these things come about.
Rachel and Rebecca enjoy a quiet moment together before the Big Goodbye.
For one glorious year The Cousins lived near us in Washington. It was wonderful. We came together for birthdays, celebrated holidays in each other’s homes, and, near the end of the year, met almost every Friday for pizza and Game Night. Sigh.
And then they left. Moved overseas. Just like that, they were gone. No more family birthdays or game nights or cousin time.
Daniel weeps to say goodbye to Samuel
Lately The Cousins are reading the blog. Daniel and Samuel got on Skype and talked for an hour one day this week. When I asked him what all they discussed, he said they mainly chatted about the blog, looking through pictures and laughing together.
Ever since I heard that, I knew I had to write a blog to The Cousins. What is more fitting than a tribute to their departure last summer.
Notice the manly way Joshua and Timothy say goodbye – no tears or hugs, just a simple handshake. Either that or they’re cementing a clandestine business deal (not sure why Joshua is in his pajamas, but these are the days of “casual wear,” even on Wall Street).
The girls, on the other hand, are a little more demonstrative.
We prayed and prayed that The Cousins would be able to stay in Washington but the Lord had other plans. The children devour any contact they have with the kids – Rachel and Joshua both correspond with Rebecca on a regular basis, Daniel talks on the computer with Samuel, and of course, then there is the blog (obviously the glue that holds us all together). When we received a cd full of pictures and videos we had to take a half day off of school in celebration (we needed that long to go through all the video of Mark careening through the streets of their new town).
So this quick little blog is to say hello to The Cousins and let them know how much we love and miss them. Come back any time, all is forgiven!
Aunt Koffee
Samuel told me this morning that there was a really neat blog up now about US that I hadn’t seen yet, so I had to come look. Very nice of you, thanks.
Interestingly enough, we call your family “The Cousins”. I wonder who started it first…
Dear Cousins! I love the pictures and the friendships!! Thanks for sharing.
Rachael and Anne treasure ‘cousin’ time for Anna and Chloe and Mason and hope to continue it. Now we have Marvin, too!
Love you, AK
We also call one family (my brother’s kids) “The cousins”. It is funny how those things get started.
It is tough that they had to leave, but sometimes God calls us to faraway places. Hopefully they can keep in touch through the internet.
Debbie – I would imagine The Cousins about sums things up.
Don’t need to waste time on full names and anything more lengthy.
Rebecca, Samuel and Timothy – I hope you don’t mind I posted those pictures of you. Not sure about that strange outgrowth on Samuel’s head in the last picture…Some things are better left unexplored.
Certainly we don’t mind. I think Samuel feels like a celebrity now.
Well, in our book Samuel IS a celebrity!!