Family

Thirty nine years ago I was fresh out of high school, anxious to leave home and experience life.  College was a challenge, friends were fun, and then it was time to tackle the real world.

I didn’t look at decisions I made then in terms of how they would shape my life over the decades ahead.  Falling in love, starting a family, choosing a career… life was a huge whirlwind of decisions and experiences… responsibilities and obligations.

Six years later we had a litter of kids at our heels… each had at least one brother and one sister to pester… and our little family seemed perfect.  Then things got hectic… and the years whizzed by.

Our children were our life.  We gave them experiences to ignite their curiosity, nurture their strengths and support their ambitions…. and we hoped that they would find happiness as they pursued their dreams.  They each found partners that made them smile… and they ventured off on their own adventures.

There have been graduations, weddings and birthings, reunions and cross-country moves….  and what used to be just the two of us… has grown to be TWENTY (one is not quite hatched).

NOTHING can make me smile from the bottom of my soul more than the love I feel for this ever-growing bundle of people.  We are scattered far enough that our time together is pre-planned and precious.

The moments captured in photos of siblings and cousins, smiles and smirks…. the life changing events that we get to experience with them…  fill me with the deepest gratitude I can imagine.

I cherish every moment I get to spend watching their lives unfold.