Getting Tian

There is a Chinese saying, An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break. I've never thought much about the red thread and the strands that make up that thread. My family was the American one and all of the other relatives were far away in Canada. In fact, I hadn't seen most of them in thirty years.

As I enjoyed getting to know some of my 82 first cousins this weekend, I constantly thought about the red thread that connects all of my extended family to our little girl(s) in China. For years... ever since adding up the cousins on a slip of paper with my mother's help, I have talked about my incredibly huge family. But I guess until this weekend, I never really thought about how interesting and special each individual cousin is... and that my children will be part of this incredibly unique family... For instance...

One of my cousins, Stephen, is a paramedic who flies from Thunder Bay, Ontario into far-reaching northern regions to shuttle people back to large city hospitals... His sister taught for two years near the Arctic Circle.

Another cousin's daughter, Debbie, is a fourth grade teacher in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan who could easily team teach in my classroom tomorrow! We are so similar that we talked for seven hours straight, barely breathing between sentences.

Two of my other cousins, Jenny and Brenda, love to read like Steve and me. We exchanged book titles from Saskatchewan/ Canadian authors and southern fiction. We found that we think very similarly about the journeys in life.

And have I told you about the cousin, Susan, in Saskatchewan who has two Chinese daughters named Stephanie and Victoria (2 of Steve's daughters' names)? So our girl(s) will have "blood" cousins who are also Chinese with the same names as their sisters, but citizens of Canada instead of the US! Amazing! And that accounts for only a very small percentage of my cousins!

So the 86 strands on my side of the family that make up the red thread is rich, much richer than the number accounts for - we are so blessed. Steve absolutely loved the time with them, by the way! And for a guy overwhelmed by people, that says a lot! At last count, 205 people had signed the guest book at my mom and dad's 50th anniversary in Florida, having traveled from as far as British Columbia to be at the celebration.

There is a song by Lucy Kaplansky written to her family that talks about the red thread...

... And when I wrap her up warm you'll be right next to me
'Cause they say the red thread that ties me to you ties her to me...

Now I see the 86 strands stretching across the North American continent toward North Carolina and that red thread reaching all the way to one crib among hundreds, in an orphanage in China.