Auntiedom

oh, I can't help but chime in on this one. If you want to read the most delicious post about what it is to be an auntie, and what it's like to find that a child has suddenly seized your everlovin' heart, you need to read this.

my own 2-cents on the subject is that there simply is nothing like it.

I'm not a parent - quite possibly never will be - so auntiedom is what i got. to watch that little life exist...to watch her eyes as an infant and ponder the wonders going on in that magnificent mind... to approach the world and imagine the understanding she is taking on...

think about it - if a tiny child cannot yet form words, how is she perceiving? what beauties has God aligned in her being that allow her to somehow "make something" of all this - all these things she is taking in?

i remember when my first niece was just a toddler. I lived on a campground (read: Christian slum with lots of trees and groups that came in to stay in dorm-style housing over weekends in winter and for weeks in summer, and tenters who decided to make camp in your front yard). There was no limit to the wonders she discovered there. My 30-something frame made no hesitation to lay on the grass face-down to personally encounter the microscopic marvels existing between blades of grass. Picking up tiny bugs, letting them crawl on our hands a moment - until the tickle overwhelmed us and we shook them free.

As she got older, our walks contained moments. Moments of examining the tiniest buds on barren trees holding promises of spring. Moments of curious conversation about how we thought this or that came to be, the place God holds in it all, and the thought that perhaps He had His eye on us just as much as He did on the sparrow.

At the age she is now (8), our moments are less pondering, and more about strength and speed and proving her frame and abilities - such fun! Bike rides around a lake are less for enjoying the beauty, and more for "can I make it all the way around this THREE MILE expanse of bumpy space - and do it with speed and agility?!? I CAN!!" How huge (read: absolutely important) is the sense of accomplishment for her these days (I'm not sure that goes away...)!

I have another niece who is just 2. Rough and tumble, independent and sure, tackling anything and everything without a thought or care.

Both girls are expressive and creative and fiercely independent ("I can do it my own self!" was a common statement of niece #1 around age 3 or 4!). Both are willing to try just about anything. I'd like to say they get that from their Auntie, which I know is true, but I've gotta give their moms (my sisters) some credit, 'cause dang - we've all got it!!

But here's my real point: there is nothing - NOTHING - like being an aunt. NOTHING!!! Am I shouting loudly enough? I don't mean to shout at you - I'm just shouting because honestly, I can't help myself. Being an Aunt is the most significant (and yah, i measured those words before typing them) privilege God has given me. Hands down.

mmmm... I hope you get a chance to go there sometime. Auntiedom, Unclehood, it's all there. It's the best. Enjoy.