Family

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These are my people.  My big kids gifted me for Mother's Day with a photo shoot organized and paid for.  It has always been hard for me to schedule family photos so this gift is extra special.  We did the photos late summer/early fall.  Our smiles do not reveal how hot or windy it was that day.  Yet and still we managed to get some really great pictures, thanks to our sweet and competent photographer...Cassie Beth.  


Here is the thing.  This photo tells so many stories...so so many stories.  Each of the 9 of us could be a story, a novel on our own.  Then if you pair up any of the 9 with another, there are more stories to tell, and in groups of guys or girls still other stories to tell.  Looking at Roger and I....chapters and chapters of stories...and separate us out each of us is also a story.  Our lives are stories.

I have told my kids over and over that their lives matter.  They were created by God to do something in this life that will expand His kingdom, give Him Glory and matter.  They don't always believe me because that is a heavy mantel to wear but it is true.  Some were born from my womb to fulfill their destiny.  Some we adopted because God's plan needed us to intervene to fulfill His design for them.  Others are being grafted in because the plan for their lives has crossed paths with one of my kids.  It's so beautiful....this orchestra of living and being and doing.  The relationships matter.  The destinies matter. 

I get to be the audience and the conductor and the writer of these stories and as I reflect on 2023 and my call to be Aware......I am so aware of how much it all matters and of how lucky and blessed and important I am.  Yes.  I am important.  I matter to all 9 of us, myself included.  Our stories matter.  Our destinies matter.  Our assignment and calling from God Almighty matter.....

And so we press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of for me.....paraphrased.  Thank you 2023 for all that you lent to the story.  It has many tears and prayers and sorrow and joy and heartache and goodness and pressing in to God and letting go.....

We are  a family in a world where the word Family is hard to define.  I can define this one.  I love this one.  This one is mine. 

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