cousins

Yesterday evening was pretty fun. I went to a friend's little boy's birthday party. He turned one last Sunday. It was small and quaint. Anna-Kate had fun playing with someone else's toys...you know, they get tired of their own after a while. About an hour and a half into the party my OB!! showed up who happens to be my friends cousin. Niiiice. It wasn't too awkward...only in my head. Sometimes I need to just face weird situations to help myself realize it's not really that weird after all. Her first response to seeing Anna-Kate (whom she hasn't seen since she was tiny) was, "Wow, she looks just like you!" That put a grin on my face since everyone seems to say she looks like her daddy. I KNOW for a fact that this kid looks like me...she just looks like her daddy too :). She's a MUCH CUTER version though which is a-okay with me.

After the party I "ran" to my mom's house for a little while to get some much needed NEW pics of all her little grandchildren, two of which have been adopted by a wonderful family and are so gracious and caring to let us see them. They spend weekends with my parents quite often...atleast one every couple months. Before the oldest started school they were there every month for days at a time. We have been very blessed with the family they have been adopted to and couldn't ask for more. (This whole adoption thing is a loooong story) Anna-Kate, of course, was the only cousin. The other four are brother and sisters but they don't exactly know it. The oldest, Madi, knows that Cameron and Emily are her siblings but Cameron and Emily don't know that we are their biological family. I think Cameron senses it some where deep inside because of the way he acts sometimes but he was really young when all of this took place. Cameron spent the first year and a half with our family before he was removed from his parents (my brother) and Emily went to this family straight from the hospital (in which she spent a month or two, I don't remember). Needless to say, it was all a mess but everything is okay now. Here are the pics from that (almost disaster ;)):

You know, I figured I might as well explain this whole family dynamics thing really fast so people aren't left wondering. Okay, my brother had Madison with a girl who didn't tell him that Madison was his until she was like 3 or something. Then my brother had Cameron and Emily with another girl. When this girl got pregnant with Emily she then decided that having another baby was not a good idea so someone told her that if she did crack then she would have a miscarriage (obviously they were already doing things that weren't good ideas). So, she does this not knowing exactly how far along she is (because she never went to the doctor). Eventually she goes into labor from all of the drug use and delivers Emily. She weighed four pounds and tested positive for drug use. Cameron was immediately taken away and Emily was never given to them. My brother and this chick ended up spending some time in jail for some other things and eventually lost all rights to their kids and were adopted by this family I spoke of earlier. After all of this happened and while my brother was in jail (I think) this other girl comes forward and tells my brother that he fathered Madison (and there is no denying it, the girl looks JUST like him!). So when he got out he started getting her on weekends and stuff and eventually met a girl whom he is married to now. They have a little girl named Kylee. Madison's mom got all of her kids taken away just at the time my brother was settling down with his current wife so they have had custody of her for almost 2 years or something. Cameron and Emily's adopted family allow all to see the kids and spend time with them. Their biological mother has no contact because she never got her act together.

Whew, okay, that was a lot but hopefully it makes sense and explains the pics a little bit.

P.S. It's hard to get good pictures of a 5 year old, 4 year old, 3 year old, 1 year old (mine of course)and a 10 month old all together.