This past weekend my family was involved in a wedding out in Ohio. It was the wedding of one of my cousins, and she had asked my sister to sing, and my Dad and I to "officiate" the ceremony. This was the first time my Dad and I actually got to do a wedding together, so I was pretty excited. My excitement quickly turned to nervousness when my Dad told me that I was going to do my part in Spanish. While I have been studying Spanish on my own (dying to speak it fluently), the reality is I DON"T SPEAK FLUENTLY! Well, it actually went awesome. I read everything out of a little notebook my Dad had created for me, and it ended up being a lot of fun...my first debut with my Dad and my first debut doing it in Spanish!

Although speaking Spanish was one of the highlights, the bigger highlight was spending time with my 4 year old niece Emma, and my cousin's 6 year old daughter Maddie. My sisters had "conveniently" chose to fly to Ohio, and left my Dad and I to fend for ourselves on a 6 hour drive to Ohio with the 4 year old (actually my older sister chose to fly with her 4 month old, and my younger sister was coming from Boston...understandable!). But seriously??? My Dad and I??? We are the least experienced "kid" people. The whole thing was humorous.

The trip with Emma was actually flawless. I would like to now think my Dad and I are pros. We could totally go into business driving people's kids places! When we arrived in Ohio, we were introduced to Maddie, my cousin's daughter. Emma quickly made friends with Maddie, and within a few hours, it was like they had known each other their whole life. It was like watching a "best buddy" friendship unfold before my eyes, and it melted my heart.

After having spent several hours together, my Dad and I found ourselves strapping the two little ones in the car who had now become best friends, and driving to the airport at 10:30pm to pick up my two sisters. My mom had given Emma a bunch of presents to open throughout the car trip to Ohio to keep her busy. She still had several left, so she decided to share a few with Maddie. Here was the conversation:

Emma..."Maddie you can open this one." Maddie opens the present and her eyes light up to the sight of a candy necklace. Maddie..."Emma, you must have a really nice Grammy. Can you make sure to thank her for the present." Emma..."Yeah my grammy is really nice. I bet she would make you a basket of presents too." Maddie..."That's ok, tell her she doesn't have to waste her money on me!"

The conversation proceeded to be about things that made them sad in life...not getting to see people they are close to and dogs that had died and gone to heaven. The conversation was filled with laughter at times as they talked about how crazy "Pop Pop" is when he dances and sings in the car (to which my Father totally denied), and as they mimicked the Mexican lasso tradition they saw at the wedding rehearsal (you'll have to look that one up to totally understand) placing one gigantic glow stick necklace over their two heads claiming, "Now we are married!" The conversation ended with little 6 year old Maddie looking at me and saying, "I wish Emma was my sister...she is really nice."

It's not very often that I get to spend large quantities of time with little ones (not having your own children yet, and living in the teen world haven't really allowed for that). I wanted to share the stories from this weekend, because I can't begin to describe to you how much my heart grew this weekend just by spending time with a 4 year old and a 6 year old. Their conversations made my heart smile, and I just felt like a richer person having gotten to be a small part of their world this weekend.

I imagine every day what it will be like to have kids in my own home that I can love on every minute. I imagine what it will be like to drive down the highway listening to their raw and honest conversations. But most of all, I imagine the amount of love that I will have to offer them when they finally arrive, as my life unfolds as a new mom. In the meantime, I am so thankful that God has put little ones in my life that give me a glimpse of that road ahead and how incredibly full my heart will be when I call them my own.

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