Family

I had a wonderful conversation the other evening with my cousin Audrey, she is such a wonderful spirit. Totally lives in the moment and blesses God any opportunity she can for all that she has. Audrey is one of my 21 cousins I grew up with in Ireland. Her family alone has nine and we used to have so much fun together. My family lived in Dublin and every couple of months we would travel 3 hours to visit my cousins and grandma (Gram) down in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. We would make the journey and when we got there we were free. My aunt Clare never seemed to have any order to what was going on in her home. There was at least 15 years difference between the oldest and the youngest so there were always kids at different stages of life running around getting into mischief. Grams house was right next to Clares home and they were both situated on a couple of acres of land so it was always an adventure to go play. We would disappear for what seemed like hours, store up on sweets from the local shop with whatever money would could find and not go to bed until really late. I loved those days they take up much of my childhood memories. I remember the day my dad told us we were moving to America as we drove down to see everyone, how I realized for the first time that life would never be as simple and carefree, that change was coming and there was nothing I could do to stop it. We said goodbye when I was ten and for at least the next five/ six years our families would alternate shipping some of us out for six weeks at a time to their home or ours. And we continued to have incredible memories. They are my family. Our family has grown and between marriages and births I bet our family has grown to over 50 and we are scattered all over this world. New Zealand, America, England, Ireland, Canada. I miss them all so much, I long for the days where we could go fill our pockets with chocolate and sit in our fort and laugh till we felt sick. It makes me so sad that there is no way I will see many of them again in my lifetime because of financial and time restraints. But when I get on the phone with Audes, who I haven't seen in over 17 years and we joke and laugh I smile and my heart is warmed because we are still family and we still have a tie that binds us deeper than no other.