Cousins...

I have lots of friends... and some of my closest friends are my cousins. I would go through and name each one, but God has blessed me with such an abundance of cousins that this would end up being quite a long blog post.

When I was little I thought everyone's cousins were their best friends. As I got older, I realized just how privileged I was to even have cousins my age, much less ones who love God whole-heartedly and are loads of fun to be around. My cousins are all amazing people. I have older cousins who are each wonderful examples to me, and younger cousins who are so much fun to watch and play with. And I have cousins who are my age and who have been my close friends ever since I can remember.

Some of my greatest memories are times with cousins; playing wolves outside in the dark with the 'English cousins'; building a fort and spending the night in it with the Dormans; watching movies with cousins; Thanksgiving in Chattanooga, summer trips up to Maine, an amazing visit to Wisconsin, and so many more.

When I'm with my cousins, it's just like a huge expansion of my immediate family. Normally I tell people I have seven brothers... but it's really more like 23. And usually people think I have just one sister... but it often feels like I actually have 7.

I realize this abundance of cousins, and not just cousins, but awesome cousins, is something that is a huge privilege, and really quite unusual. I pray I never take it for granted.

To all my cousins -- thanks for being awesome. And to my dear Father -- a thousand thanks for giving them to me.