Stieler/detail, visipix.com
I’ve emptied myself of the riches from my sister’s wedding… or so I thought.
Four consecutive posts in 48 hours are followed by silence, so naturally, I think I am done.
I return to my every day life of posting about the weather and the dentist and my simple world in Vermont.
But then like the Princess and the Pea, I feel something rubbing. Only it’s a good thing–a hidden jewel, waiting to be claimed.
And that jewel, my friends, is my niece Brielle.
18 years ago, Brielle was given for adoption. I stood beside her birth mother (my brave sister) and her adoptive mother (a gracious woman named Margaret) in the delivery room as Brielle came into the world.
I held her in my arms and marveled at her dimples, and then I never saw her again. Until now.
18 years after her birth, she is magically a part of our lives. My sister has kept in touch over the years, but it wasn’t until this past spring that they saw each other in person.
Oddly, after the first moments of marvel passed, Brielle became one of our large matriarchal clan–with no trouble holding her own among its bold beauties. She was there with her aunts and cousins for my sister Bonnie’s shower and she was there at the wedding as if she had always been.
True, that she has forever been held close in our hearts and minds. Each year on March 8th, we celebrate her birthday with words of love to my sister; and we relish photos sent from her ever-gracious adoptive family.
With the advent of Facebook and live chatting, Brielle’s world grew closer to ours, especially as she came of age—and then we were one. So much so, that the precious gift of her presence at the wedding could go unnoticed at first glance, as if she was always meant to be there among the smiling faces and good spirits of our treasured nieces and nephews.
And now she is. And we are blessed!
Kelly Salasin
It is so amazing Salasin. My Mother, nieces also had a baby girl, when she was 18 year old without a husband. My cousin name the baby Myra after our Grandfather, who had died 6 month before the baby was born. My mother was going to help and raise the baby. But her other Sister , had no childern of her own, She and her husband adopt Myra . Myra also knew her real Mother also……
love you Kel, always so interesting1