Madison McKinley Willis

Boy did I have a bunch to talk about... Since my last post I have renewed gov't docs, bought tickets and eurail passes, almost missed my bus, Spent 30 hours on a bus with some of the craziest charecters you've ever seen (and I mean ever, I have at least 2 hours of hilarious, gross, and scary stories). I arrived in denver, saw a great movie and did other stuff. I thought that was the most eventfull 2 and half days I'd have until I left. Boy was I wrong.

Enter the reason that all of that thought changed...

Madison McKinley Willis

Madison was born at about 7:45am on 7/17/05 and is my first neice. I'm really kinda shocked by emotion right now. She was expected to come in 5 weeks and the fact that she was early and I was able to see her was the best gift I could have recieved before my trip. Really puts my connection to family back in perspective, especially as I question connections with friends and try and see what I dig in other people and learn more about connections and whos worth keeping around and who I should distance myself from. I had some good talks with most of my better friends about this, some were short and some were long but all were good. If you read my other posts I'm speculating on the power of relationships and how that effects our life and now all I can think about is Family. I got great evidence for the importance and greatness of personal relationships with all of the local denverians coming in to visit, see madison, and offer help to Caleb and Nance.

All I can think about is how much I enjoy my family and regret the fact that we aren't closer. We do have close nuclear sections and we keep in touch on a slow-cycle basis. We all love each other but seem to value alone time over the love we share. This seems unfortunate to me. I always wanted to have more traditions, and spend more time, and enjoy each other more. I realize this reflects on the "Willis Clan" which is like Carla and Dave (my grandparents), Diane, Mike, My nuclear family, heather and dave (my cousin), Wolfe and Max (Dave and Heather's kids) timmy (cousin), steph (caleb and molly's mom), and recently the Wilkins clan. It also is the bigger picture, the Craney family has like 400 some living decendents today and I don't think many of us know lots of them, We don't even know most of the decendents in our section of the family tree. Maybe I'm naive to think that a family that has spent many generations here and has suffered nuclearization and spread to all corners of the country will be close like a first or second generation family that is all in the same city would, but it's something I think we all would regret in the end, I don't want to die (eventually hopefully 100 years from now) without raising a family and having a close supportive unit that my core family is a part of. Maybe I should stop moaning and try and do something about it. ehmm the wheals are starting to turn.

Another pretty cool thing was that Devin Cass (one of those extended family cousins I was talking about earlier) got my blog from my dad, so hey maybe we are more connected then I thought (I'll be optamistic). The interesting thing in that is that I read it today on a time when I'm most reflected on family, I left her a comment with my email and maybe that will be the link between our two seperate nuclear units. Kind of funny if it worked out like that and the kids were encouraging the adults to stay close and follow tradition. Very Twilight Zone.

Well all my bantering and pondering aside, I'm happy as a Polar bear drinking coca-cola that I was able to see Madison -- I look forward to her telling potential boyfriends about her crazy uncle whos very protective. Caleb might get in trouble with Nance and Madi if he trys to scare off the bf, but I think I'm beyond reproach. Ahh the delights of not having much expected of you, I'm gonna miss youth when it's gone.

Madison - One day I'm going to go over this trip with you and share with you this post and what a delight it was to meet you before it. Welcome to the Willis Clan. Your dad is an excellent man who loves you very much and your mother is an angel without wings. You, I'm sure will have a beautiful life ahead of you filled with errors and achievements. You'll learn to take the good with the bad, keep a happy demeanor and love life. I can't wait to watch you grow and mature into a young women filled with a drive and vigor that rivals anyone. I will enjoy every minute of it, and I feel so weird because it's the first time I look forward to another generation as the future, you brought me to terms with my own mortality in just less then 20 hours. Imagine what you'll do with a lifetime. If you ever need advice or a listening ear, you have a loving family unit and uncle here for you. We all love you and wish the best for your life, may god look down upon your life with pride and love.

Congradulations to Caleb and Nancy... here's there email announcement and a link to the pictures.

Cheers
-Tyler

Friends and Family –

Nancy and I wanted to share our recent news with everyone – Madison McKinley Willis was born at 7:46am, Sunday, July 17th, and is happy, healthy and doing great. Nancy went into labor early Sunday morning (around 5 am), and after a very quick delivery, Madison arrived, weighing in at 4 pounds, 3.5 ounces, and stretching the tape at 17.75 inches long.

Madison was obviously anxious to join everyone on the outside and help us move into our house, arriving ~5 weeks early! We couldn’t be more excited, and were overwhelmed by the support of family and friends, many of whom came by the hospital today to welcome Madison into the world. (We are truly blessed to have such an outstanding group of friends here in town…)

I have posted a couple pictures here, and will post more over the coming weeks.
http://willisdomain.com/calebftp/Madison/

Both mother and daughter are doing very well, and we look forward to introducing Madison to you all in person soon!

Best,
Caleb, Nancy and Madison Willis