A Facebook Family Reunion!
April 28th, 2009 by ariana
This past Saturday I met my mom’s first cousin Wendy for the first time. You heard me right, for the first time ever!
And not because she lives in some far flung part of the earth, but rather because her father Alfred and my grandmother Arline have been estranged for.. I don’t even know how long, but I think over 50 years. There was some nasty family infighting that I won’t go into, but the outcome was that Wendy and her two sisters hadn’t seen my mom and my aunt Diane or their aunt (my grandmother) since I was just a small child.
That is until my mom and auntie tracked them down on facebook of all places!
From left to right my mom, grandmother and cousin Wendy.
It had been so long and there was such bad family drama in the past that my mom and auntie weren’t sure how their message would be received by the three sisters. As it turns out, they were thrilled hear from them and confided that it had been a lonely upbringing without any other family to speak of.
The best part is that Wendy and her husband live just an hour drive from us in CT. No, maybe the BEST part is that they have two adorable sons Noah 5, and Aidan 3 who couldn’t wait to meet their new cousin “baby Jasper!”
So Saturday the little Connecticut clan joined us for an Al Fresco brunch and of course I took the opportunity to photograph our newest cousins! Unfortunately I was just NOT nailing the focus and exposure on my new (used) Tamron lens, but I did manage to get a couple good ones. It’s hard to go wrong with subjects like these.. look at these gorgeous blue eyes:
Noah
Shot at 1/6oth (too slow), 3.5 and 200ISO with the Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 lens,
And these gorgeous Hazel ones:
Aidan
Shot at 1/6oth (too slow), 3.5 and 100 ISO with the Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 lens,
The two brothers played together nicely the whole day and though I’m not sure circumstance will allow it, it made me wish for Jasper that he would have a sibling someday.
Being that I had actually showered, gotten dressed and even put on makeup for the whole occasion, I seized the opportunity to ask my mom to snap some photos of me and Jasper together. Actually, it started because I got my Mommy Necklace in the mail and asked her to take a picture for the blog and from there it became a mini photoshoot. But that is a subject for a whole other post!
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I totally guessed which one of those pretty ladies was your Momma… you look so much alike! So glad you had a nice time with your family:)
we DID see eachother! it was a trip (she lives in seattle and just happened to be in town for her grandmothers bday!)
so – the flickr acct… its a work account ;) i just use it for work photos and only keep a few on at a time, seems to be the best way to share photos without crashing everyones email. those particular photos are of our cafe at university of the pacific(i work for http://www.bamco.com and handle marketing/image/decor thus all the hype on sustainable food and eco-friendly packaging etc.)
Jbhat, thanks!
Kari, it’s so wild. I can’t believe that about your friend two miles away.. did you see each other?
So I’m totally confused by your flickr account. I almost thought it couldn’t be you because of the photos that were there (what are they?) and the photos that aren’t there (Liam!). Please fill me in :)
Kimberly, I DO love the nursing necklace.. or more importantly Jasper loves it. The nursing was actually going well for a change until yesterday when I got a nasty clogged duct going. OUCH. I think it’s more than one, it’s sooo much worse than the other one I had (only had once and it went away quickly). If it’s not one thing..
Hooray for Mommy Necklaces!!! Don’t you love it? How is the nursing going? Great photos of you and Jasper, and how fun to meet long-lost family! :)
isn’t facebook a trip! Kurts ELEMENTARY school is planning a reunion, and i was able to g2g w/ a girl i hadn’t seen since highschool who RANDOMLY was staying in a hotel 2 miles from my house when we found eachother online! I have a feeling a LOT of reconnecting as well as “family secrets”
will be revealed via the pages of facebook!
the photos are FAB.
What a touching story! Great shots, by the way. I took a sneak peek at your flikr photos.
Wow, that’s so cool! I hope you get to meet them soon :)
That is so awesome! I actually tracked down two Aunts of mine whom I have never met (they are my Mom’s half sisters) that are both about my age. They grew up in New Jersey, but one actually lives in CA now, so hopefully we can meet up at some point. Hooray for you, and your new extended family! Can’t wait to see the pics your mom took!