My Greatest Blessing

Today, I'm going to talk about the role I hold most dear to my heart, being an aunt. 

I'm so extremely blessed to have 8 amazing nieces and nephews. Being an aunt is my greatest joy and one of the many blessings I have in my life that I hold dear.

As of this February, I have been an aunt for a decade. In those ten wonderful years I have become an extremely proud aunt to 5 nephews and 3 nieces. I have also become a Godmother to my oldest niece. Being an aunt is definitely the best gift and blessing I've ever been given.

Being an aunt and a Godmother is the most wonderful gift. Most of my nieces and nephews don't live close to me. This means that I don't get to see them (and the rest of my family members) nearly as much as I would like to. Not seeing them as often as I would like depresses me so much but it also makes the times I do see them and get to spend quality time with them, that much more memorable. Spending quality time with my nieces and nephews (and my family in general) is my favorite thing to do.

I'm thankful for technology because even when I'm not with my nieces and nephews in person, I can Facetime with them as well as call them on the phone and Skype with them.

I love sending my nieces and nephews birthday, Valentine's Day, Halloween, & Christmas cards in the mail along with some fun stickers. I love shopping for presents for my nieces and nephews birthdays as well as Christmas.

Every time I have to say goodbye to my nieces and nephews when my visit is over, it tears me up inside. I have spent a portion of every flight crying my eyes out because of how badly my heart aches when I don't see them for months and months at a time. The hardest thing in my life is only seeing my nieces, nephews, and the majority of my family members a few times a year. As my nieces and nephews have grown from babies to toddlers to school age children, I have missed and continue to miss out on huge portions of their lives. There are so many wonderful moments I didn't get to witness, birthdays and holidays I didn't get to celebrate, family occasions I wasn't present for, school programs/activities and sporting events I didn't get to attend. 

As much as living far away from my family breaks my heart into pieces every day, I'm thankful for my blessings because I know there are people who have it much worse. Keeping this in mind though, it still doesn't make it any easier to live so far away.

A few years after becoming an aunt, I heard this song and I instantly knew that was the song I wanted to dedicate from myself to my nieces & nephews. Below are a few of the lyrics:

Amazing by Janelle

You're so amazing you shine like the stars

You're so amazing the beauty you are

You came blazing right into my heart

You're so amazing you are

I hope your tears are few and fast

I hope your dreams come true at last

I hope you find love that goes on and on and on and on and on

I hope you wish on every star

I hope you never fall too far

I hope this world can see how wonderful you are

One day, I hope to share this song with each of my nieces & nephews.