As our children age we have the added responsibility of providing an active summer schedule to keep inertia, the greatest temptation and enemy of our family, from taking over completely.
This year due to grad school, we could only do one major event together and we selected Grandpa Camp as our top priority and it was a great choice. I did a post on the highlight reel last year if you will recall.
We forwent Canada and Northern California where Steve presented (and will present) papers this year because the tempting waters of High Rock Lake called our name--but not the lake but the people with whom we spend our time. My family resides there--not the family where I was placed at birth, but the family that actually picked me and allowed me to join them as an additional daughter, no strings attached at my most awkward and embarrassing time of life: high school. They loved me then and continue to care for me:
They forgive me when I change my mind last minute and change plans.
They express gratitude each time I see them that I am a part of the family.
They love my children as their own grandchildren and go out of their way to specially care for them.
They freely accept me for who I am, regardless of any differences in upbringing, family culture, or ways of talking about things.
Who wouldn't want a family like that?
I am grateful to the circumstances, regardless of how difficult at the time, that allowed me to be taken in, cared for, and spiritually saved by this second family. For others, being an only child with two deceased parents would make for a sad adulthood. But for me, I have a home. I have people.
I wish I could be in two places at once so I wouldn't have had to leave early to be home for grad school because I could have been hanging with the girls on the dock:
Lucky you to have them. Lucky them to have you!
ReplyDeleteAnd I promise not to tell that leaving early for "grad school" is code for "Asian soap operas."