I was a single mother of Chelsea and Cameron for quite awhile before Adrian rode in on his white horse (with Jordan in tow) and our blended family was created. There was that time it was just the three of us though, and I often think of the things I did or said as their only parental figure that I wish I could change. I don't have any regrets, really, because they both turned out to be incredible human beings. I think so much of that has to do with the one constant they have had their entire life together: each other. From the time Chelsea was 16-months old and Cameron came into the world, they have been together through thick and thin.
No matter who they were with, no matter where they were, they were always together and were there to protect each other.
There was one time - Chelsea was in the fifth grade and Cameron was in the fourth - there was a bully that had been picking on Cameron and was meeting him after school to beat him up...turns out the bully was a jy-nor-mus young lady (of sorts). According to legend, Chelsea saw the crowd gathering and went to see what was going on. Seeing the victim was her little brother, she stopped the bully cold, (using methods we will save for another story) and when she looked around to see if her brother was okay.............he had hidden himself under a bush (he says it's because he was told never to hit a girl, and we "believe him").
To help Cameron save face, I will tell you that years later we had moved into a new house during the summer months, so the kids weren't in school. Chelsea and Cameron were old enough to stay home by themselves, and were playing a board game when they heard a noise outside. Cameron looked out the window and saw a man on the side of the house. He shuffled his sister into the closet, telling her not to move and to cover herself up with a blanket, picked up one of Adrian's golf clubs, called Adrian, and proceeded to tell him in a whisper that Chelsea was safely concealed in the closet and he had a golf club and he was ready to use it - he was 11. Turns out he protected Chelsea from the man that was turning our water on for us. What would he have done had it been a real predator?? I shudder to think how helpless a golf club-wielding 11-year-old would have fared, but the point is he was protecting his older sister from any harm at all costs.
Don't get me wrong, they have fought like cats and dogs most of their life and even said terrible things to one another, but let anyone ELSE say something out of sorts and it's AWN.
Last July, Chelsea got married. We all dealt with it differently. Cameron loves Sam (we all do!) and he was so happy to welcome an older brother into the family. He never once said he was sad to see his sister move out (he was thrilled to move into her room). But the wedding photographer caught the truth in his heart when she took the following picture that was taken at the end of the reception when Sam and Chelsea rode off into the sunset together...
