Family

It's been a long week. It's been an even longer weekend. Usually, I long for the weekend. Usually, I wish it would stay the weekend forever. This has been a long weekend.

Cory has been working this weekend. It's National Alpaca Farm Days. He got to the ranch a little after 7:30 yesterday and was there until about 5:45. This morning, he left just as early. Yesterday, I brilliantly thought that we could get out of the house and go have some fun at Old Navy. I mean, they were having a crazy sale. I could start Christmas shopping, get some birthday presents taken care of... it would just be quick. It would be fun. I even patted myself on the back as I thought to take the double stroller. That way at least 2 would be contained. Fast forward an hour. Brenton apparently knows how to unbuckle and get out of the stroller. Jackson and Ella are running to press the button that makes a dog bark. My heart was pounding out of my chest. Fun times. I'm so glad I went. I did get some really good deals. Who doesn't love paying $2.00 for a swimsuit that their daughter can wear next summer. $2!!! As we were checking out Cory called to see if we would be stopping by the ranch. They had snacks there. The kids could play, eat some lunch, then we could go home to nap.

Fast forward 3 hours. After riding ponies, riding in a horse drawn cart, petting alpacas, playing in dirt piles, eating pizza, eating candy, and drinking pop (gasp!) Caden was done. He marched himself out to the car, climbed in, and was ready to go. So was I. I can say, we did have a lot of fun at the ranch. One of the owners of the ranch has a HUGE family. A huge, amazing family. He and his wife have 7 kids. I think I heard that the wife is from a family of 12. Most of their 7 kids have kids. They were all there at the ranch. I loved watching all of them. They helped each other with their kids. They sat back and enjoyed each other. I wanted to be adopted into this huge, amazing family. I love my family. I am greatly blessed by my family. But, my parents and brother and sister and law are across the state. Cory's sister is amazing as well. However, yesterday I just thought, how cool to have such a huge family. I told Bill, the owner, that I just loved his family. I commented on what a blessing they all are. His response struck me. He said he was always telling his kids how important family is. If you don't have family, you don't have nothing. How true. The other thing he said was that friends could be flaky, but family was always there. Not so true for us.

The thing is, our family doesn't just include our family. Our family IS huge. Our family has been there for us through thick and thin. Our family is amazing. Not only are we blessed by our biological family, but we are richly blessed by our family in Christ.

I was at church this morning. Truly, I didn't want to go. Cory was working, I had to do it by myself. I didn't want to go. But, I went. It was the celebration of 15 years that our church has been around. It was the day of our church picnic. This would all be so great if Cory were there, but he wasn't. I didn't want to go. Plating 5 plates of kids food who probably would whine about the food didn't sound fun. Sitting in the hot sun, eating said food, while the kids whined about the food, didn't sound fun. I walked out of the doors of the church and saw a friend that I knew if I could just get a hug from her all would be a little better. I think we both got a little therapy from that hug. From there, I was greeted by a great friend who asked how she could help. She took my bags. As I walked over to look at the food and see if my kids would eat it, I was greeted by more friends wanting to help. They each took plates for my kids, another friend took my kids to sit down, my heart rate slowed just a bit. My family knew I was alone today. They made every effort to make things easier. They helped me care for my kids. They took care of me.

My family has care for us more times than I can count. They have fed us when we couldn't feed ourselves whether with a food box or freezer meals galore. When Cory was sick, a great friend took it upon herself to organize freezer meals for us. I was blown away, number one, by the number of meals we received from people that didn't even really know us. Number two, that people would make so many meals for us that had such specific ingredients since there were many things Cory could not eat. I was blown away as meals continued to flow through our door. We were fed for months. All by our family. Not only did our family feed us literally, we were also fed spiritually. They taught us how to serve. They helped carry our burden. They prayed prayer upon prayer.

As we've faced many trials in our lives, our family has always been there. God has so richly blessed us with an amazing, huge and wonderful family. They are anything but flaky. So, hear I sit, still a bit frazzled from the weekend. Still a bit tired. But, knowing that I am so blessed. God has made sure that we are taken care of here of earth. He has sent so many people to care for us. I am so thankful to be so loved.

We're doing a study at church called "Better Together". We truly are better together. My kids memory verse has been, "Your love for one another, will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:35. How wonderful. I pray that as we all walk with each other, embrace each other, feed each other, that other's would be able to see God's love. The cool this is that as we do this and extend this love to those outside our church family, our family will only continue to grow. We too can have a huge, amazing and wonderful family!

It's funny, as I've typed this out, I've gone from feeling like this...

To feeling like this... To feeling like this...God is so good!!