WELL I FINALLY DID IT.....

I pulled out an old photo album that I knew had pictures of my nephew in it. I felt like I needed to see better times. Happy times. One of these days I will post some of my happy pics. But for now I wanted to share my most favoritest picture ever taken of Luis Fernando.

He came to visit during the summer when he was 14. He was a little pudgy (in his opinion) and just as adorable and sweet as you could ever imagine. He had his hair cut really short and my son wanted the same hairstyle because Louie was COOL! Well Luis-Fer being 1/2 Hispanic and 1/2 black had very different hair than my son who has my very Caucasian hair.... Try explaining that to a 7 year old kid! So... I cut it the very same way with very different results and he thought he was the coolest kid on the block *heehee* such good memories.

I feel the need to share the familial relationship because I'm sure you are wondering how I (a very paper white person) have a black nephew. This is my husband's family. My husband lost his father when he was about 6 months old. My husband's mother's family rallied around her and my husband's cousin Minguito (who was older) stepped up to take over as the male role model for my husband as he was growing up. Minguito was a brother/father to my husband. He got married in Panama to a very beautiful woman (who happens to be black). They moved to Canada before the invasion. After the invasion my husband moved up to Canada to live with them. (This is where I come in to all this) I moved up to Canada to be with my future husband. I fell in love with their children instantly. They were just tiny and didn't speak any English....yet. They were the first children I have ever loved. I remember all the fun we had at the parks and trying to communicate. Definitely a huge part of my young adulthood. I babysat them a lot and they were the best behaved kids ever. We moved away and always kept in touch. We moved to Europe and while we were there Minguito and his wife divorced. We moved to Georgia and Minguito followed soon after. He lived here for a few years and were were lucky and blessed enough to see the kids about once a year (sometimes more). When they were here I would steal them from their father and take them to the beach, the mall and the movies or just over to my place. Once I put them to work painting. You couldn't ask for better young people. I love my niece to death, but my nephew was my heart.

He was very special to me (if you couldn't tell).