What do you have now that you would have begged for years ago?

2 grandparents.

6 siblings.

4 in-laws.

22 grandkids.

Every year, our entire family travels from all over the world to Texas for one wild week together at Grandma and Grandpa’s for Aldous Family Cousin Camp.

We just wrapped up our fourth edition, and this year’s theme was “Home for the Holidays.”

Because none of us live near each other, we don’t get to spend holidays together. So we decided to celebrate them all in one week. Each sibling chose a holiday, planned the activities, and created the menu for that day.

My brother and his family chose Valentine’s Day.

One of the activities was decorating Valentine’s mailboxes and making cards. We had about 45 minutes scheduled for the activity, which was just enough time for most of the kids to finish their mailbox and maybe make one or two cards.

Lunch came, the activity ended, and everyone scattered.

A little while later, I walked back through the kitchen expecting to find an empty table and instead, found that eight of the older cousins had come back.

No one asked them to.

They just sat down and started making Valentine’s cards.

Not one or two.

One for every single cousin.

For the next several hours they carefully designed cards, wrote personalized notes, decorated envelopes, and quietly worked their way through all 22 cousins.

I had to keep cutting more cardstock because they kept running out.

That night, after dinner, we let everyone open their Valentine’s mailboxes.

As I watched them read their cards, laugh, hug each other, and proudly show off the notes they had received, I thought about how this all began.

When we planned the very first Cousin Camp, we weren’t trying to create the perfect family vacation.

We were trying to build relationships.

We wanted these cousins to know each other deeply.

To feel like they belonged to something bigger.

We hoped they would grow up genuinely loving one another.

Watching them spend hours making cards for each other without anyone asking...

I realized something.

It worked.

That moment reminded me of one of my favorite questions.

I love this question because it supercharges my gratitude.

Too often I compare what I have today to what I still want tomorrow.

This question forces me to compare today with yesterday.

Four years ago, I would have given almost anything to know these kids would someday choose each other.

Not because an adult told them to.

Not because there was a reward.

But because they genuinely cared about one another.

This week I got to watch that happen.

I don’t know about you, but it’s easy for me to get caught up in seeing the things that are missing or that I want to improve or change in the future.

Sometimes in that searching, I lose sight of my past requests coming to life right in front of me.

Until a question helps me see (and appreciate) those things.

Today is one of those days.

Keep Asking,

Kyle