Family....

I read this book to Fiamma for the first time yesterday and I cried. And then I quickly re read it again to make sure that what I thought I had read was what I really read...just to make sure that it was qualified enough to do the job of causing me to cry. Yes it is. It's a pretty darn cute children's book. Then name of it is "The relatives came" by Cynthia Rylant. I am not sure if this is legal, (I really want to read it to you. But I can't) but I will jot down a few lines. You could always pretend that I'm reading it to you...ok here goes. uh-hem. check 1, 2, 3, 4.....

It was the summer of the year when the relatives came. They came up from Virginia....they left at four in the morning when it was still dark, before even the birds were awake. They drove all day long and into the night, and while they traveled they thought about Virginia- but they thought about us, too. Waiting for them....and traveled up all those miles until finally they pulled into our yard.

THEN it was hugging time. Talk about hugging! Those relatives just passed us all around their car, pulling us against their wrinkled Virginia clothes (this is where I was balling), crying sometimes.

They hugged us for hours.

Then it was into the house and so much laughing and shining faces and hugging in the doorways. You'd have to go through at least four different hugs to get from the kitchen to the front room. Those relatives!

The relatives weren't particular about beds, which was good since there weren't any extras, so a few squeezed in with us and the rest slept on the floor, some with their arms thrown over the closest person, or some with an arm across one person and a leg across another.

It was different, going to sleep with all that new breathing in the house.

The relatives stayed for weeks and weeks...they ate up all our strawberries and melons. But none of us thought about Virginia much. We were too busy hugging and eating and breathing together.

Finally, after a long time, the relatives loaded up their ice chest and headed back to Virginia at four in the morning. We stood there in our pajamas and waved them off in the dark....we crawled back into our beds that felt too big and too quiet.

And when they were finally home in Virginia, they crawled into their silent, soft beds and dreamed about the next summer.

THe End....

Do you remember as a child, or even now, a really good hug? When you get your face smashed into their chest arms around you and you breathe in and their smell over takes you. it's truly amazing. you just want to stay there and be for a long time. Everything else fades, it's all a blur. all the bad the good and the ugly. That's what it felt like every time by dad would hug me. Mom included too. But especially my dad. He was strong. So when his arms were around me I felt so safe and protected. I just wanted to stay. For hours, and hours. And then he would say,

"The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."