Uncle Bill K snapped this photo of the family back in February. Aunt Vicki passed it my way. Uncle Tim and Uncle Gary made the conference thing happen for us. Uncle Danny was even there from the States.
So glad for the missionary family full of aunts and uncles for my boys. Our trip to Triunfo and the conference of our missionary friends with BMMB was delightful and hence all the smiling faces. I think the best part was our boys having opportunity to see all their missionary aunts and uncles and fellow MK's again after a few years' hiatus. One missionary lady even told me about how one of my boys just out of nowhere come up to her and gave her a great hug once during the week.
Calling missionary adults "aunt" and "uncle" is more than just a term of respect for my boys in a land where the equilivants in Portuguese are well used to refer to adults. It's a term of endearment and relationship. I'll never forget one furlough when one of the boys without knowing any different called the mother of a young playmate - "Aunt So-and-So." The woman just looked at my little feller and said, I'm not your aunt! Without knowing it, she crushed my babe's little heart as he figured she was an aunt since we spent a good amount of time with their family. She later relented to the boys constantly callling her aunt and allowed herself to be their aunt after all.
Missionary aunts and uncles are just as REAL, just as loved, and just as important as blood-relatives. I'm thankful for all my boys' blood-relative aunts and uncles, but so glad for the incredible cloud of missionary witnesses they can claim as friends and examples.
Thanks for the photo, Uncle Bill Kettlewell. Thanks for wrestling with one of my boys during the conference. Thanks for sharing in our lives over the years and in the life of Byron when he, too, was an MK boy in need of a few good uncles! And thanks to all the wonderful Aunts and Uncles my boys have in NE Brazil and all around the world.
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| Uncle Danny |
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| boys and some more MKs |
By the way, I have a "real" Uncle Bill. I love him very much. So sad that I can't be nearer to him, but glad for the good memories my boys have of him and a crazy four-wheeler during our last time in the States!
Yep, this is a good thing and I appreciate this very thing in my own children's lives. Being soo far away from blood relatives for soo many years at a time makes it pret' near impossible for kids to know them. I have been ever grateful to and for those dear adults who have loved my children even though they are not by blood. They are related "through the blood of Christ".
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