Visit From Cousins

On Wednesday Hope was feeling much better and Ben, Becky's cousin called to see if she was up to a visit from second cousins, Marlie, Luke, and Lilly. Ben and Carla took Marlie with them in November and brought Lilly back from Jiangxi Province in China. Lilly is fourteen months old and finds that Texas living is agreeing with her just fine. Hope's older sisters and her neice and nephews all showed up for pizza. If she hasn't figured it out yet, Hope will discover that she is part of a really big and wonderful family. She has only seen a small part of it so far.

In China the "one child policy" is having all sorts of impact besides the obvious which brought us Hope. I talked to Jason, our guide, and he is old enough to have siblings, but the generation after him will not know what it is to have a brother or sister. The next generation will have neither siblings, or cousins, aunts or uncles. No one will have a neice or nephew. Jason pointed out one advantage the only child wil have which is the undivided attention of grandparents.

We are a blessed nation.

Ronnie