Three cheers for cousins!

Our granddaughter Mia has twelve black cousins, one white cousin and two who may look white, but have Caribbean and white heritage.  She also has three second-cousins in Scandinavia.  Two of them are very blonde. The third has gorgeous dark brown hair.  Her mother is originally from Romania, such is the wonder of human relationships across country boundaries.

One generation ago in the 1970s, when we were being interviewed about becoming prospective adopters, we were asked how our family and friends would welcome a baby from a Caribbean background.  We answered that we felt confident they would welcome the newcomer.  This proved to be entirely true.

Now fast-forward to 20I1. Our elder son is now a proud father of daughter Mia.  Family members have stayed in touch in England, France and Sweden.  I cherish this photo of Mia and two of her Scandinavian cousins.

They had not seen each other for one year and were so happy to be together again.  They fairly raced along the pavement on the way to Kew Gardens, where they played and walked for hours.  (Each of those little girls usually complained about long walks, but they did not notice the distances they were covering, as they chatted and chased each other.)  Three cheers for cousins!