Austin's Shower / Reunion

Picking Mo up from Camp Encourage made us late for my newest nephew's baby shower. But things were still in full swing when we finally dragged in, over two hours late.



Everyone was there, including an aunt from Arizona I only see every couple years and an aunt from Texas I see barely that often.



And a cousin I'd never met. Said cuz was put up for adoption by my (at the time) unmarried aunt. They made contact, I think, about a year ago. I've had experience with this in other areas of the family. The 'real' parent is the one that does the parenting, the changing of diapers, the bandaging (and kissing) of wounds, the punishing of crimes and misdemeanors, the packing of lunches, etc. Which isn't to say the biological relative who makes a wise and loving decision to not try and do what they're not realistically in any place to attempt, gets no credit. In the moment, that decision is probably the harder one.



And the great thing is after the dust is settled and the kids have grown up, they can be great friends and form a significant bond with that person who signed papers giving someone else the most important job in the world, parenting a kid they were responsible for bringing into the world.



So anyway, my new cousin isn't the first adoption story in my family, though this is the first time I met a member of the outbound traffic.



After the shower, we went back to my Dad's and Em hit it off instantly with her first cousin once removed (and curiously, adoption has nothing to do with the 'removed.') My aunt, my Dad and my new cousin spent quite a bit of time on old, faded photographs (which I nosed in on some).





And me and I guess my once removed nephew (or something like that) spent some quality time with guitars. Including accompanying my once removed niece with her violin.



When we were leaving, it was commented that Em and Hannah had clicked immediately, and then it was, 'Sorry there wasn't a boy.' For my soon to be sophomore once removed nephew.



And I was like, wait a minute. I was the boy. We're over 20 years apart, but thanks to arrested development, we had a ton in common and a lot of fun with the guitars.