Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Tuesday Treasure


Back to the old grind.....Are we still doing this?


This is my neice, Abigail. She is three years old. She is a treasure to me because I never thought I would have neices or nephews. My sister, as you know, is married to a man with his own children. He wasn't really keen on adding to the brood so kids were out of the picture, so we thought. Teresa started to feel the baby bug not long after they were married and to make an extremely long drawn out story short, she issued an ultimatum. I kind of blame myself as this wasn't an issue until she met Jacob, but really, who could not look into those shiny blue eyes and not want to take one home? Anyway, her husband had "a procedure" during his first marriage that prevented spontaneous conceptions and for whatever reason it could not be reversed. Soooo.....my BIL had some sort of "extraction" done and my sister had IVF, implanting three embryos with Abigail as the result. Another long story shorter, she tried to do it a second time for a second baby but that never developed. Abigail will be my only biological neice, the only biological child of my only sibling.

It's a given that my own children are treasures to me, I write about that everyday, but it is different having a neice. I can love her, enjoy her, yet let her parents deal with the rough stuff. Much like I am sure grandparents feel about their grandkids. I only see Abigail twice a year, if we're lucky, and each time she is different. It's sad that she doesn't live down the street where she can play with my boys whenever they felt like it. I hate that she is closer to her daily babysitter than to me or even my mother because we all live so far apart. I wish I could see her develop daily instead of yearly, but that will never be. I am grateful to have had almost a week to spend with her, lavish love on her, listen to her stories, and view the girly world for a while (wasn't for me, thank you, hats off to all you girly moms). So until Christmas or next summer I will continue mailing pretty dresses (she's wearing one I sent there) and hearing her stories over the phone. She's a far away little treasure getting bigger all the time.

9 comments:

Overwhelmed! said...

She's a beautiful little girl! Thanks for your comment on my Treasure Tuesday!

OneHungMan said...

I feel you pain about the cousins not being able to play. We have one niece, and I don't see another niece or nephew ever happening.

It's said because our little boy and his cousin have an absolute ball. She's a year and a half older and he looks up to her and she takes him under her wing. They both throw a fit when it's time to go.

It's to the point where OneHung is thinking about another child just so Child of OneHung has a playmate.

andria said...

You know, Jacob was going to be our one and only child. He was just too difficult in those early years to even entertain the thought of having two in the house. We decided to have Adam ONLY so that Jacob would not be alone as an adult after we kicked the bucket. The whole time I was pregnant we were thinking maybe that wasn't a good idea, but having Adam totally mellowed Jacob. There is a four year age difference, but they still play together like friends. It was the best thing we ever did for him.

Jacob and Abigail are 2 years apart almost to the day. They get along so well and they played so hard that entire week they were together. They sobbed when she had to leave. Now Jacob has taken to writing her letters and her mom writes back and it's really sweet. I missed out on the cousin relationship from living far away, I hate that my kids are going to live that too.

Beck said...

That is so absolutely sweet and she is absolutely beautiful. My kids are going to be so much older than any cousins they'll ever have IF my brothers ever get around to having any!

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

She's a doll! And I love the pic below of the 3 kids. I have a similar picture of the grandkids: one's crying, one's grimacing and another's holding a squished cookie and screaming.

Michelle said...

what a great treasure...and she is just adorable!

Mama Duck said...

She is beautiful!

sweet memories said...

is this little cutie so lucky to have an auntie like you! I am sure you treasure your visits with her!

Amie said...

My parents have 9 grandchildren, only 2 are girls. I absolutely adore them.