It’s a place to come home to. A love that engulfs. The familiar comfortable bindings from years of growing and learning and laughing and hard times. The forgiveness for mistakes and misunderstandings. It’s what makes family special and loved and irreplaceable. It’s what makes us homesick for Heaven and that destination that will actually and truly resonate with our inner most being and we will know we are actually, truly, forever HOME with our Father, and the family of saints.
We took a quick trip to West Virginia last weekend for my cousin’s wedding. I hadn’t seen most of my cousins in a very long time, so I was very excited. It made it even more wonderful to visit the old ‘stomping grounds’ of my girlhood best friend, and “partner in crime”. That old farm-house is literally saturated with memories. From totally embarrassing to hysterically funny to teenage heart breaks. I could write a whole series of books on our stupendous and epic moments. Maybe another day I will begin that project 🙂
Now we are supposedly ‘all grown up’ with husbands and little girls and boys with happy or sad faces 🙂
Our girls are actually close in age, and just like us, they can wear each others dresses and hair bows.
Carly wore Kierra’s dress and we watched her quietly as she scooted all over the house on a trike, munching an apple.
Isn’t she just beautiful! My heart was all mixed up watching her. Thinking of how Kierra would look doing the same things she did. It was special. sweet. inspiring. and heartbreaking all together.
Two adorable little girls. Two totally different paths in life. Two mommys that love them fiercely and tenderly and wholly. Isn’t life just incredible?
Aunt Betty held Kierra for a long while. They got along very well 🙂
Everyone needs an Aunt Betty. She’s got a kind, thoughtful lovely heart that reaches out and makes you feel comfortable in your own skin…whatever type of ‘skin’ that is in life at the moment 🙂
The wedding day was lovely and the happy couple literally beaming with love and hopes and dreams.
The day after the wedding, we slept as late as our children did 🙂 then we ate steaming delicately crisp waffles smothered in favorite toppings, mine being peanut butter and syrup. (See, I still have part of that little girl in me somewhere 🙂
It was so refreshing to see happy faces and brave smiles and family warmth. To feel that we are loved and cared for. No matter what comes our way in life. That’s how family is meant to be. That’s the kind of family I want to raise. The kind of person I want to be.
Love your family today. They really do need it. And so do you!
Wildflower Muse 
This is so much how I felt when I came back from the Hershberger Reunion. I’ve always loved family get togethers but the older I get … No, no, it’s the more spread out our family gets and the more I move to other communities. YES! That’s what it is. 😉 Anyhow, the more that happens, the more I realize how much I treasure family for just the reasons you shared!
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Yes, yes,, Michelle!
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