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Last Sunday was the annual family reunion that takes place for my mother’s side of the family.  As I have stated before, I am not terribly close to them as I am to my father’s side of my family.  Nonetheless, it is always good to see my grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousins.  An extra treat for this reunion was that my nephew was coming out to see everybody, and he had not seen many in this side of the family since he entered foster care in 2005.

My aunt and uncle looked pretty well.  Admittedly, my aunt looked the best she has in quite some time, and I am glad to see that.  I saw my oldest cousin and his girlfriend.  She was nice, and it surprised me that he was dating someone with young children.  He seemed to enjoy them, though, so that was good.  My uncle is doing well, working in network engineering.  I missed my youngest cousin, and my middle cousin was apparently driving back to Seattle to work in IT for Starbucks.  According to my uncle, he was hired without an in-person interview, which is pretty impressive.  I think I need to talk to him at some point, given who he will be working for. 

My grandmother is doing well, after a small health scare this summer.  She is still getting around, and I finally got her to agree to a date with me to take her out to lunch–kind of a birthday and Mother’s Day gift wrapped up into one.  She lives out in Carroll County, so I will need to drive out and pick her up.  It’ll be worth it.  I am planning on taking her to lunch at Amicci’s in Little Italy Saturday afternoon.  It’ll be fun getting her into town on Saturday.

My nephew came with some of his foster family, and everyone was quite nice.  I have met his foster mother before, and he is in good hands.  To some extent, I think my nephew entering foster care is the best thing that happened to him.  Don’t get me wrong, as there are moments where I sit back and wonder if I should do something.  At the end of the day, though, I know I made the right choice.  He is doing well in school, and I am proud of him.  I am trying to figure something out to get him for his birthday.  I am pondering giving up my laptop and giving it to him–making it a combined gift, perhaps.  Since he has become quite the participant in the National Young Leader’s Conference, I think he might be needing it if he is to travel to Europe.

Finally, the topic of my mother came up.  I made a bad joke and got a slight bit of grief from my grandmother, but I countered that the only real way I can deal with the fact that my mother is in jail is by making light of it.  Trust me, it is not a subject I speak about a lot.  On one level, I felt bad, as I had finally received a letter from her last week, filling me in on what has happened.  My mother is back in jail, as she was deemed a flight risk on account of her association with my sister.  Of course, the funny part about this is my sister is in jail here in Maryland.  I feel bad for my mom since the last time I talked to her it seemed as though she turned a corner.  I will write her back, though, tomorrow evening.

The highlight of it all, though, was my nephew.  I really am proud of what adversity he has overcome to be where he is at today.  He’s a damn good kid, and he has done a lot of this on his own.