7 years and Counting...

One experience that really had a huge impact on my life and made me who I am today is when my mother brought my cousin into our home under foster care to raise as her own. I was in the sixth grade, I remember the few years before it when they were just discussing the possibility while the courts were still making their decision. He was only 3 years old at the time he made the biggest transition of his life. He had been living with his grandmother in Florida and had not gotten the chance of meeting us prior to the court order granting my mother long term guardianship. This means that unless ordered by the court then my mom is to have full custody of him until he reaches the age of 18. The excitement of meeting my cousin for the first time was a burst of adrenaline and nerves, worried about how he would adjust to his new life, or what if he didn’t like us? Then what would happen to him. The day finally came for my mom to fly down to Florida to pick him up, luckily he attached to my mom fairly well for being passed to a near stranger at 3 years old. They did not get home until 4 A.M. the next morning, which happened to by my dads’ birthday. My mom and cousin had had a very long day between trains and airplanes and delays. Before my mom put him to bed that night after they got home she sat on the couch with him watching blues clues to settle him down, blues clues was his favorite show. The sound of the tv must have woken me up because I remember waking up shortly after they arrived home and was wide awake. I went in the living room to meet my baby cousin for the first time. It was a plethora of emotions that just rushed over me and at 11 years old I was a little overwhelmed. I was happy, excited, relieved that he was finally here, and scared about what was in store for us in the future. Later that morning my mom was kind enough to let my brother and I stay home from school. My sister who was only 2 years older than my cousin was in kindergarten that year, but lucky for her they cancelled all kindergarten classes due to the snowfall. With my cousin Riely coming all the way from Florida where he had lived since he was born had never experienced snow, lucky for him his firsts day in Massachusetts it snowed, A lot! Seeing and watching him in the snow and how he reacted to how cold it felt amazed us all, it was so much fun.