Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Full Circle

The day after we got engaged, WG and I met up with my aunt, uncle and two little cousins in Colorado. I had seen my uncle or aunt since they'd gotten married, and, in fact, due to a major family argument had missed the wedding entirely. I'd never met my little cousins due to the same argument (see numbers 35-37 in "100 Things").

In early January, we found out that my uncle was very sick, and all of the reasons for the argument came tumbling down. For the first time, my mom and I were able to separate the rift with her mom from the rift with her brother. We both contacted my uncle, and since I knew I was going to be in Denver, anyway, I asked if I could come visit.

So, on the day after he became one, I was able to introduce WG, as my fiancé. It was the first time I'd seen my uncle in six years, and he and my aunt got tears in their eyes when they saw me, and my aunt started to cry harder when she learned that WG and I were planning on getting married.

My uncle has always been one of the two most important men in my life. He was, in many ways, like a second father. He was always around, always babysitting me or sharing in the "who's going to pick up Sarah from school?" nonsense. I know he took it seriously when he met the man I'm going to marry.

The initial visit went well, and in many ways, it was like no time had passed, and it felt so good to get a hug from my uncle again.

I played with the older of my two cousins, read her a book, helped comb out the hair on her my little ponies. We bonded :). I also marveled at the fact that she does, as my uncle mentioned almost as soon as we walked in the door, act just like I did at that age.

When it came time to plan out our wedding party, I so wanted my cousin to be the flower girl, but I worried that this would seem to sudden, too forceful. We've only jsut reconnected with that part of the family, after all.

But my aunt and uncle both loved the idea. And, apparently, so does my cousin, as she has taken to naming all of her new toys and dolls "Sarah." So, that was nicely settled, and I had a new, warm place in my heart, as a result.

Then, we got to talking about who would walk my mom down the aisle.

My mom wondered aloud at asking her brother to take on this task.

She debated and she pondered.

She asked him.

And he said yes.

And now, the family that was broken before a wedding six years ago is being brought back together by one now.

1 comment:

Mimi said...

...and that circle surrounds us with love.