July update

This past week was a birthday party for my 80 year old 2nd cousin in California.  She is my my mom's 1st cousin, and one of her best friends growing up.  Tim and I and the kids were able to visit her last summer when we were out west for our family vacation, and I just fell in love with her!  I had communicated with her sporadically throughout the years, and probably met her when I was much younger, but I felt I was really able to get to know her last year.  So when I received the invitation to her party, I was very torn.  I wanted to go, but knew it would be expensive.  After much prayer and encouragement from 2 of my best girlfriends and Tim, I decided to go, and I'm SO glad I did.  I had always wanted to meet her kids (7 of them!), ever since I found out they were on Family Feud probably 20 years ago. They are an awesome family!  I saw pictures of my mom when she was a teenager that I had never seen, and old photo's of my grandparents as well!  I learned more about my family history than I ever thought I would know, and had just a sense of belonging that truly surprised me. Here is one of the pictures of my mom (on the right) and her cousin, Joanna when they took a trip to Chicago in 1951: 

Don't you just love it??  Here's a picture of me and Joanna this past Wednesday: 

And then there's the family photo that I was included in (bottom right) taken at Joanna's birthday party.  Joanna is towards the middle in the blue and white dress - isn't she pretty?  She sure doesn't seem or act 80 years old!

It was such a great experience - I'm SO glad I went!  It's been pretty busy since I landed back at Tampa airport  on Thursday morning around 7am.  We have 11 days until we close on our house, but we still are waiting on the commitment letter from Wells Fargo!  Supposedly we will get it tomorrow, so please be praying for that! 

Tonight our church had a family night with the movie Wreck It Ralph.  So since it was family night we thought, hey, we're a family!  We should go!  :-)  We had a great time, and even took a picture on the red carpet:

I was going to put pictures from our 4th of July time in Port Charlotte, but I don't know where they are!  I think they're on Nicole's camera, but it's late and she's asleep, so I will just have to wait and upload them later.  Suffice it to say, we had a very lovely visit, as always!   Speaking of being late, I'd better hit the hay!  Hope y'all had a very blessed weekend!