The price of a dream coming true

I had a bill come due this week. The kind they don’t tell you about.

The price you must pay for a dream coming true.

You could’ve walked right past us and not known what a bittersweet moment was taking place.

A simple visit with my two nephews.

My brother’s boys have been my treasures since the day each was born.

We’re miles and miles apart, but at least four times a year I got on a plane to share those special moments like when they were born and birthday parties.

These boys only made me want my own kids even more.

It wasn’t going to come true. Until it did.

You have followed my journey, Dear Reader, as it has unfolded in this column.

The single dad with a little girl. The man I married. His daughter I adopted. My Little Sister in the Big Brother Big Sister program who now lives with us.

This family is better than the one I dreamed for myself.

But the cost of a dream coming true often means giving up something or someone. For me, it has been those frequent visits across the country to spend time with my nephews.

My new family gets so much of my focus now. But I just had the chance to head West and marvel at how these little boys have grown into such fine young men.

“I remember the day you born,” I told one. “You looked so much like your dad that I almost dropped you the first time I held you.”

“I remember the first time you put two words together,” I told the other. “You pointed up at the sky on a dark autumn night and announced, ‘crescent moon.’”

My nephews appeared partly fascinated as I pulled out memory after memory.

“How do you know all this stuff ?” they wondered as they looked at the aunt they haven’t seen so much the last couple of years.

It was then that I realized they don’t remember.

I’m no longer the aunt who was there for any moment she could grab. I’m now the aunt who is married and lives on the other side of the country with cousins they’ve seen only a couple of times.

What price have you’ve paid for your own dream coming true? The price of saying, “yes!” to a great passion meant too many “no’s” for another great love.

Oh, what you’ve missed. What I’ve missed. I long to share more.

So, I will text. I will follow them on their social media. I will try to grab more visits in their busy lives.

This is the best debt I can ever pay off.