My Neice

My family was never really good with emotions. I struggle with it constantly myself. I have the ability to have emotions and make connections - but it is constant work for me. When I grew up how you felt was really the last concern on any one's mind. I certainly did not have a bad childhood - just one where sensitivity was too difficult to experience and therefore not expressed.

My two sisters have such different kids. One sister has lovey dovey children that wanna sit on my lap all the time, tell me they love me, and touch my face. I am happy for this and think it is because of the emotional influence of my brother-in-law. My other sister has children, much like me and my siblings - who have difficulty experiencing or expressing emotion. The youngest of these kids is Elliana.

Elliana is a joy but I am happy because I figured a way to connect with her that is comfortable and one she eagerly participates in - the US Mail. She is going to be 13 soon and we write each other multiple times a week. She says and expresses 10,000 times more in her letters than she could ever in person. Each letter is the same - a plain with envelope covered in stickers that usually say things like Jesus Loves Me or You Rock and addressed simply to Uncle Scott. Inside the envelopes is a single sheet of white lined paper, triple folded and written in pencil. She tells me of all sorts of adventures she is having and comments on mine. Unlike her uncle she has neat and consistent handwriting and just needs a tad bit of work on spelling. She is curious about the world and always manages to elicit a true LOL from me. But best of all is they are always finished up with "I love & Miss You".

In case you are wondering - I got this picture when she came to visit me. The way I got it was that we were both looking at the camera to have our picture taken together. When my sister said, "ready???", I quickly leaned over and kissed he before she knew what happened. Elliana of course shouted, "Uncle?!?" but alas it was too late as the picture was snapped - yay!