Family - your history, your present, your future

It isn’t something we choose – it is something into which we are born. Sometimes we feel our family fits us like a glove and sometimes we feel like we don’t belong, but a family is a family – people who love you whether you fit right in or tend to ruffle the traditions.

Immediate family is the one we create when we reach adulthood – we set the tone of our house, we create the environment we desire and we display the books, sentiments and values we want in the corners and on the walls of our homes.

I have spent the last several years cultivating that feeling of home in my house.  For the first few years of our marriage, my husband and I were very busy with work, graduate school, figuring out how to live with each other and blending our belongings and our tastes.  After we had children, our home was filled with the décor only new parents in survival mode can appreciate – safety gates, baby toys, pack and plays, piles of laundry, spare clothes for baby, burp cloths ...  Now that things have settled down and we are right in the thick of parenting and training children who pick up on every word, making our house a home filled with character and virtue has been in the forefront.

Our life hasn’t become any less stressful – and it certainty hasn’t become any less busy, but the need for constant vigilance and keeping the delicate things hidden away has sort of come to an end (at least for now). And I also have learned how to create a more family-oriented home – one that is ready for guests; warm and inviting. It is still a work in progress, but I believe in life-long learning!

I enjoy hosting family dinners and remembering times that bond family together – times that only we can reminisce about.

When my mother- and father-in-law celebrated 60 years of marriage this summer, my sister-in-law snuck into their home and absconded with wedding photos for the party. She also was kind enough to make copies for each of the siblings who wanted them.

These priceless photos remind us of times gone by – people we never met, but who have greatly impacted those we know. My husband’s grandparents' (three of whom I had never met) and my mother- and father-in-law’s photographs from their wedding now grace our piano top.

Looking at them while I play makes me thankful that they raised such amazing children. Collectively, they brought my husband into the person that he is today. And, my children, while practicing their lessons, get to see the generations of family – the stay-at-home and working moms who struggled to raise their children and care for their houses and their husbands, the men who served our country and provided for their wives and children, and the marriages that have withstood difficult times and yet persevered and grew stronger. These are the examples I want my children to see – steadfast love, gentle spirits, love of God and love of country.

I love my family – and I love the family that I married into. It is rich with history and bursting with amity. Most of all, it is the lineage from which my children come and the legacy they will continue.