My Family 5-31-06

My Family

After twelve years of not all being together at the same time at the same place, all of my family was finally together this past weekend. The big occasion was my little sister's graduation. My two sisters from Florida came (and their husbands) along with my brother from California and of course all of us Michiganders. To say that it was a wonderful, perfect time together would be an understatement...it was too good to be true.

My parents are divorced, so I have one real brother. My mom remarried when I was 6 and then came Jen and Kelly (my step-dad's daughters)...so there were four of us...all two years apart (a completely blended family). Jen and Kelly's mom moved them down to Florida so we would all be together only for the summer and for two weeks during the winter time. Brennigan came along in 1988, making her the only child of both my mom and Ernie. So then there were 5 of us kids . I have heard horror stories of blended families gone wrong. I am so blessed to be able to say that my step-dad is one in a million...could never be any better...and all of us kids were instantly bonded. Summers were so blissful as Kelly and I would play all day every day and Jen and Jason would do the same. The trip back to the airport at the end of the summer was one of the worst days of the year for our family...it was silent and sad. We hated to be apart and loved to be together...but such is the life of blended families...right?

Well, obviously we all grew up and went our own ways. All of us are married except my older brother and obviously my younger sister. We all have jobs and responsibilities and houses to pay for...so we don't get away very much. Maybe that is why this trip was so special...because we all knew that it would be awhile before it happened again...so we made the very best of it. And I would not trade a moment of it for anything.

Landon LOVED his aunts...but I think his uncles scored the most points. He still wanders around our house looking for Uncle Roy or Uncle Jason to play blocks or water with. Every time he asks me where they are my eyes fill up with tears because they are gone and the next time Landon sees them he will probably be out of wanting to play blocks or water and into video games or some other bigger boy interest. The day my brother left he had told Landon he would play water with him (sprinkler) when Landon woke up from his nap...but Landon took a really long nap and Jason had to leave for the airport. So when Landon woke up he went room to room looking for Jason and it absolutely broke my heart to have to tell him that he was gone. I wish so badly that my siblings lived close by so that our children could grow up together and we could be a bigger part of each others lives. But this is how it is, and yet, we have so much to be thankful for.

Being together these past days was just like being kids again. It is so amazing to me the bond that we all developed despite only seeing each other a few times a year and despite not having the same parents, and sharing one. Divorce is such a complicated, terrible mess...but in the end, I received two of the best step-sisters a girl could ever ask for, a brother whom I may not have liked much growing up...but love greatly now , a little sister who is the most like a real sibling to me, childhood memories that are as wonderful as they come, and the best step dad in the world who has always been and still is much more like a father to me than my own. I guess this is just evidence of God's amazing grace.

For our parents 20th anniversary we surprised them by taking some photos of all of us kids and framing one of them in a 16 by 24 frame for above their mantle. We knew they would love it...and they certainly did. My mom said that it was the best gift they had ever received. All of us kids are so different...but yet bonded together by so much. Families truly are forever and I am so thankful for mine.

(I have a picture to end this post of my whole family..mom, dad, etc...but I have reached my dumb limit...so I guess that will have to come later )