Continued from: The Journey of How I Became Your Mother: The Story of Joe and Eddie.
When I was growing up we always seemed to have Extra children in our family–especially during the Holidays. As a young Minister Uncle Eddie was called to be involved in the local boys home. The 1970’s version of an orphanage. Our Thanksgivings had so many children it was almost like a fair! And, because I grew up in California our Thanksgivings were warm and dry. We would have three-legged-races, and potato bag jumping, football and ice cream.
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My parents house and yard were bigger, so Thanksgiving was always at our home. When I was little I never really understood where all those boys came from, I just knew that as a little girl it was kind of nice to have all the cute little boys undivided attention. We always dressed up for dinner as Pilgrims and Indian’s but, before our feast we made our outfits. I loved watching all the boys create theirs from the different construction paper, fabric, feathers, and doo-dads we spent the year gathering.
I learned when I was old enough to understand, the boys we had in my home for Thanksgiving didn’t have parents who could take care of them, they lived together in a Boys home. My special memories as a child–included more children then could even be counted! But, I never noticed the difference. My cousin “Duffy” (Edward Jr.) and I were the oldest in the family and this was just the kind of life we knew–filled with magical moments and so many kids eating, playing and laughing together.
It wasn’t just Thanksgiving–it could have been any day some kid would show up and no one even asked questions, because that’s just how our family was. After Julie was adopted Aunt Terrie and Uncle Eddie became foster parents so there were more then just boys around. We don’t even know how many Unofficial Cousins I actually had but, there were a lot. Some of the kids are still a part of our family today.
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Uncle Eddie showed me what family really was. It didn’t matter who was “in” if you were at the house you were part of the family. Sometime, I wasn’t even sure who my actual cousins were–but, it didn’t really matter because I liked them all.
I had some kind of special love for my Uncle Eddie. I think he might have been one of the only people on earth who could see my heart. All of my life he spoke to me in a way no one else ever has. He told me that I was a special little girl and that God would lead me my whole life–just exactly the same way God had lead him as a child.
To be continued: When Uncle Eddie Took Care of His Birth Mother.
Related Blogs:
- Choices and Consequences
- Scar Tissue
- Rumors and Crutches
- The Story of Joe and Eddie
- Thanksgiving and LeRoy’s Boys
- When Uncle Eddie Took Care of His Birth Mother.
- I Married An Adopted Boy.
Special Needs and Adoption-Related Terms: Adoption terms and special needs words may vary from agency to agency. The terms used in this Special Needs Adoption-Related Glossary may be slightly different from one State to another.
A | B | C | D | E-F | G-H-I | J-K-L | M | N-O | P | Q-R | S | T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z
For more information about parenting special needs children you might want to visit the Families.com Special Needs Blog and the Mental Health Blog. Or visit my personal website.
Anna Glendenning is also Families.com Insurance and Guest Blogger. Read her blogs at: http://members.families.com/happymomanna/blog