My brother Jonah and I dubbed ourselves the “#2’s” years and years ago.

I was the second girl, and he was the second boy in a family of nine kids.

It was our own special “club” in a sea of siblings.

And we are so excited around here because this club of ours is reuniting:

Well, we are sort of trying to know if we should hold our breath…may be too good to be true? But it’s looking good.

You see, he and his family live on Maui, and since his youngest will be in third grade next year they decided to make the trek to live in the desert for a year so that that boy of theirs can have the best third grade teacher in the whole wide world:

Mr. Eyre. Who is my brother Josh.

Does this make me feel like chop liver because we have five kids who live a few miles away and were never in Mr. Eyre’s class? Yes, it does! But I was underwater at that time with all those little kids and Dave traveling every week trying to start a company and I just didn’t have the bandwidth to get kids to two different schools with toddlers and babies in tow, and by the time we got to our “easier” younger kids who didn’t have little siblings to lug around we needed the special needs support. Blah blah. I think I figured they got Josh around so much that they could experience the magic he creates without being in his class. And they did. They sure love that guy. But of course it’s not the same as being in his class and every now and again I do kick myself about that little fact.

Anyway, I digress.

Bottom line is that we are crossing our fingers we’ll really have not one but TWO of my brothers around next year.

Sometimes I marvel at how similar my siblings and I are.

We have such similar views of the world. We have such similar takes on the gospel. We are all compulsively addicted to travel. We love to debate and talk through life and we crave being together.

But there are other times I marvel at our different paths as well. The ways life changes according to who you marry and where you live and what you read and how you think. I so appreciate the differences right along with the similarities.

Jonah’s family is so unique.

He met his wife Aja on a summer internship at Harvard. Aja graduated from Harvard and was also Miss Las Vegas (where she grew up). They have five kids, the oldest goes to Columbia, the second just accepted an offer to attend Harvard (yow!), and three more who I’m sure will do outstanding things.

And they live life in such a unique way. I wrote about this when I shared their daughter (my niece Ana)’s incredible documentary she put together chronicling their trip driving across the country in a “greasel” car. That post is back HERE.

If you haven’t watched that video yet, you NEED to watch it. It will make you think in a whole new way.

Ok and I may as well link the video here too in case you don’t want to go back to that post, but there are some good other things there too if you have time! Here’s the video trailer:

And the full video itself:

I marvel not only at that awesome family, but also on Ana’s video skills. I wish I had those suckers!

Anyway, back to right now: Jo came for a visit a couple weeks ago (shipping one car he is working on fixing and trying to figure out all the logistics of getting their kids into school, etc.).

We went to see Top Gun together:

We had some long, late-night discussions:

The girls got to hang with that awesome uncle who is full of no-nonsense wisdom and fun teasing:

We basked in togetherness and got excited for how this next year will go with Jo and Aja and their crew here.

Cannot wait for our new neighbors.

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5 Comments

  1. That is so fun. At the end of 2020, I was diagnosed with cancer. God was so good to have moved my two closest brothers home that August. My parents live in Kenya so it was amazing having my brothers and their families with me as I walked through that experience. We are still in the same town and I am loving every family gathering we have.

  2. Their 3rd grader was born in Hawaii. I can’t remember if any of the others were? Getting any vital documents from Hawaii is a long and difficult process out of state. Get copies of birth certificates from there before you go if you don’t already have. Order them now, make the appointment to get them as soon as possible. It took 46 days to get a few months ago and the wait time got longer. I seem to remember AZ school starts in late July. I would think they would want a birth certificate as part of school registration?

  3. Oh… I love that you get to have family so close!! ❤️
    I have to say this part caught me – “ But I was underwater at that time with all those little kids and Dave traveling every week trying to start a company and I just didn’t have the bandwidth…”

    We are in the middle of this right now. My husband is running a business, traveling a lot… And with inflation, back orders on supplies, hiring craziness.., and 5 kids 10 and under – I just burst into tears. Sometimes life doesn’t turn out the way you thought it would when you jump into it. 🤣 for me to read that you felt stretched thin and didn’t have the bandwidth to work something really great out helps me soothe my own “dreams and wishes” that haven’t quite turned out the way I wish they could. Thank you for throwing that little piece in, amidst the exciting and fun things.

    We’re you blogging back then? When you were home with so many littles and Dave was gone so often? I feel like reading through those might help.

  4. What exactly does your brother do for a living? Doesn’t seem like he has a regular job… does his wife have a lot of money? Wondering how they support themselves. And please don’t say they barter. That may be true, but last time I checked the grocery store and power companies don’t barter…

  5. The video was amazing and it made me feel a little less weird! We homeschool, have lived in several states from sea to sea, and have lived a little more adventurous life than, honestly, I would have liked to. I could relate to many things from their trip: Free camp sites, picking up cars from another country, jimmy rigging cars, dad/husband who’s willing to ask for a discount at a thrift store, and a whole lotta family togetherness. We don’t watch a lot of movies but, we will be watching this together, so fun!

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