Goodbye! 'Til 2011!

My brother, Anthony, recently went back to the Philippines to fetch his whole family and move them to the United States. A lot has happened. Their expected 3 weeks of waiting turned out to be almost 2 months. It was definitely pure hassle but for my kids and their cousins, the extended time in the country was more of luck than anything else. All weekends of their remaining days here were filled with cousins, cousins and cousins.

You see, Ean and Cuatro are almost twin cousins. They were born just about 5 months apart. At that time, Anthony and his family still lived with us. The two boys grew up thinking they were brothers and have spent every possible moment together. Toni and Alex didn’t share the same privilege since Marj (my sis-in-law) and her two kids moved with her family when Anthony went back to the U.S. for good. But being copycats of their respective brothers, they too developed a closeness that exists between sisters.

But the waiting did end and the time to say goodbye came in a blink of an eye. We came to realize that indeed the closest people to our hearts are soon moving permanently to another part of the world. Their last night here was filled with hugs, kisses and tears, kids’ tears mostly. We definitely would miss them but it’s a move that we know they’ve been longing for…being together as a family finally…every day of every week…every week of every month…every month of every year...

It saddens me and my children because they are somewhat going to lose their twin cousins and best friends. However, all I’m thinking now are the benefits. You see, when their cousins are here, they tend to define friendship to be exclusive among the four of them. Now, I’d like to think that they will be able to develop new friendship with other boys and girls. This thought might not have sunk in them yet. There will definitely be a transition especially since Christmas is in the air already and the kids are so used to being together during this holiday season. Thanks to school, they are kept really busy to be missing their cousins too much. Thanks to the web, they get to keep in touch on their own through friendster and YM.

Now we’re counting down the days until 2011 so we can see the whole family we love so much!