Stories and Photos

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

Today was a really great day! I was so lucky to be home today because my mom's cousin and uncle came over for a visit!

You may remember me mentioning that they were supposed to come over a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, that visit had to be cancelled at the last minute due to a tornado watch. We're still getting used to this Florida weather! Luckily, they were able to come by the house today for a few hours to chat and catch up, which was really amazing.

My mom's family is really big. Now, we don't go by all of those technical terms like "first cousin" or "third cousin twice removed." I have no idea what all of those things mean. Basically, my grandpa was one of five kids, so any of his neices and nephews are my mom's cousisns. Any of the cousins' kids are still just our cousins as well, and I refer to them all as my cousins no matter what generation of kids they are part of. So counting all of the generations from my mom's and down, there are over a hundred cousins in our family. There's a ton of us, so many that we don't see everyone often. When we do get together, it's usually for a big event like (unfortunately as is the case most often for get-togethers) a funeral or something, which means that everyone is together all at once. When everyone's all together at the same time, it can be difficult to have one-on-one conversations and really invest in what's happening in everyone's lives.

Today gave me a wonderful opportunity to catch up with my great-uncle and my cousin in a calmer setting (as calm as you can get in my house anyway). I was able to tell them all about my job at Disney, and fill them in on the progress of my writing... they're the first people outside of my immediate family to know what my novel is about, actually!

What I really love, more than anything, when I see my great-uncle is the fact that we can talk about my grandpa. He was my grandpa's younger brother, and he always has a bunch of old photographs and stories to share with me. It's such an incredible feeling to hear about a man who was (and is) so important in my life, especially when I hear about him as just a person and not "Grandpa." I mean, he lived this whole other live before I was in the picture, so it's great to hear about when he was growing up. I definitely get to hear tons of stories from my mom about when she was younger and her connection with her dad, but it's also nice to hear about what my grandpa was like as a young man prior to being married and having kids.

I also found out that my mom's other cousins will be coming down to check in on their dad once in a while, since he's a snow bird and will be living in Florida all winter. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else as well, as long as my work schedule permits it. Having people in the house felt really good today; I actually forgot for a while that we never have anyone over anymore. It didn't feel like we were in a new house in a new state... we were just in our home having family over to visit. It'll be really nice to do that again.

Now I'm hoping that talking about my book will give me some inspiration to accomplish a few more pages this week. I feel like every time I get a spark of a really great idea, it sizzles out much too quickly and I barely accomplish anything. Hopefully I'll make some more progress and will be able to say that I have slightly less to finish when I'm talking about it with the next family member!​

Thank you so much for your continued support! I look forward to sharing more stories about my experience with foster care, and hopefully hearing from readers who have questions or similar stories to share. I'm always willing to answer questions and hear about other experiences! Please don't forget to like and share my Facebook author page as well!

I’d greatly appreciate it if you would share this blog with friends and family through your favorite social media sites. If you’re sharing on Twitter, don’t forget to tag me (@TayTayK02) and use the hashtag #TaylorTalks.

Thanks!
Taylor

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