…and to think… a year ago I didn’t know most of them.

Who would have thought?

…me having a good time in Charleston, South Carolina. Who would have thought?

My husband’s favorite cousin announced he was getting married. 

Ecstatic. “Ecstatic” was the word. I love my family. I don’t think I appreciated “family” growing up the way I do now. I don’t even feel like it’s necessarily an age thing either.

Growing up, my immediate family lived 7 hours away from both grandparents. I enjoyed seeing my cousins, but we did not grow up together.

I remember when we had a family member who moved from the north to Florida and I was BEYOND excited because I finally had family living in the same city as me.

…then we went to see their new house.

I was young, still in the single digits of my youth and my cousin was older… like much older. She was in middle school at least. And we had nothing in common but blood.

In fact she might even be similar to The Child. She played video games, was an artist, and very Dungeons and Dragon–y. She was a child at heart, yet highly intellectual and I was a kid so for these reasons, we never completely clicked. So I had a cousin in town but… it’s like going to visit a “cousin” as a kid and it’s the first time that you realize that cousins can be older, too. THAT feeling.

I know I’m not alone in this.

And it wasn’t so much that she disappointed me, I just wanted a cousin who was my age. I wanted her to be a kid.

My husband, on the other hand lived on a street where every. single. person. shared blood with him. He once told me that he couldn’t date people in the school zone for fear they might be related. That’s how serious it is out there. 😆

Considering that half of his parents’ immediate family lived on the same block, they were tightknit whether they wanted to be or not.

So our dealings with family have a contrast.

There are times when I was at odds with my mom and he would remind me, 

“you only get one mom.”

Seeing him interact with his family, yet still balancing remaining true to himself and our family has in turn grown my love and shown me that second to God, it’s most important.

He is a mama’s boy, but this has not compromised our relationship. I don’t feel like I’m competing. When it comes to their relationship, I don’t feel like a 2nd fiddle. I’m proud to be married to a mama’s boy if this is what it means. Loving, protecting, and listening to me and my needs as he would his mother, who he respects.

His love of family has grown my love for my own. 

The word “family” just hits different now.

 So when I met my soon-to-be new cousin, I was hype. From my understanding, we were similar… so said my cousin and husband… whatever “similar” means.

Lowkey I think they meant petty, stubborn, and fancy, but anywho- I was excited!

The first time we met, I watched as my new cousin plotted and schemed to have her way all while putting together the best birthday celebration that her fiancée had every experienced. I loved it.

And that’s the thing, that’s the trick. It’s not about hiding the plot or scheme. It’s about still getting to do what we  SAID we were going to do without being stopped because YOU think that WE think YOU don’t know what WE are doing, but you do and don’t stop it because you want to see, just like us, if our scheming will work the way we planned, so you can gloat and reveal that “you knew” if it doesn’t work.