Cool Aunt Robyn

Okay, so they don't exactly call me that. But check out the letter below (you can click on it to make it bigger), and obviously, I am Cool Aunt Robyn (except for the whole abandoning-my-niece-on-the-day-
before-her-tenth-birthday thing...Ouch).

The weekend was a blast…High School Musical 3, the Wild Waters water park, School of Rock and Space Camp on DVD, American Idol on XBox, brownies, pizza…yep, Roger and I are a pretty cool uncle and aunt, if I do say so myself. But we don’t do it to be cool. We do it because we love these kids more than words can express. (Who am I kidding? We also do it because HSM and water parks and XBox and brownies are some of our favorite things too!)

For me, leaving Connor and Dale (and their parents) will without a doubt be the hardest part about leaving South Africa. But I am comforted by the fact that Roger and I have formed lasting bonds with these incredible kids, and they know that they are always, always welcome in our home, no matter where that home is. I’m already envisioning them as teenagers, coming to spend the summer with us, ready to see as much of America as we can show them. I look forward to that day and I pray that they will feel as comfortable with us then as they do now. Because I don’t want to lose the closeness, the comfort with each other that we currently share. I don’t want to become the far-off aunt or simply, the American relative.

But I don’t want to be the distant South African aunt to my niece and nephews in America either…especially not to the upcoming Chicago arrival. No, as much as it breaks my heart to leave Connor and Dale, I know that it’s time to go home...

But that doesn’t make saying goodbye any easier.