Today I was just glancing back through my blog and coming across the above picture made me stop. I took a moment to really look at my family and this profound sense of amazement just rushed over my body. I started to think about families and the way that family works.Just over 30 years ago, my parents met in a bowling alley. That's right, a bowling alley. They did not immediately hit it off. My dad did not ask for my mother's phone number right away and he did not call her the next night. In fact, as she tells the story it took him quite a while to phone her. When he finally did, it had been so long that she couldn't quite remember who he was. It didn't take her long to remember! Before they knew it, they were getting married.
It started out as just the two of them. Two people, in love, waiting to start a family of their own. My parents didn't have kids right away. I think they had about a year to themselves before they thought about adding kids to the picture. It's amazing to me, how families begin. They there were, two young kids so happy and in love. Two people, ready to take on the world. Now there are 11 of us in total! Wow!
I was looking at that family picture and my mind wandered back to the night my little sister was born. I barely remember it, but I do remember something! I remember being taken to the hospital in Belle Fourche and seeing this little baby in my mom's arms. It wouldn't just be Adrienne and I any more. Candace was there now. I then think back to Christmas the year I was about five. For some reason I remember standing next to the Christmas tree in the living room. My dad's voice is saying, "How would you guys like to have a little brother?" Those are the words that every little girl wants to hear! We desperately wanted a little brother! When we learned he would be coming from Korea, that was even better! What an adventure it would be. When that little boy came off of the airplane in Denver with a huge smile on his face, we all knew we were goners!
Looking at that picture causes my mind to wander back through the years. I think of broken bones, playing hide and seek in the haybales, watching Mom lip sync to "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" on super speed, building snow caves, and playing farm in the abandoned corrals. I remember our amazing family vacation to Florida and seeing the ocean for the first time. Thoughts of so many meals gathered around the kitchen table laughing-yes, with me spitting milk-and sometimes crying. Memories of my dad, always up early, heading out to irrigate the crops drift through my mind. I remember one particularly tough year when I thought I wouldn't make it. My parents prayed with me every night before bed and my dad left me an encouraging note on my door every single morning. I still have those precious notes.
When I look at that picture, I think of little picnics that Mom made for us so we could have "fun" in the yard...I now realize those picnics were probably as much for her sanity as for our fun. I remember riding in the feed truck with Dad and being the one that got to take his lunch to him when he was planting corn. My favourite thing was to run out to the edge of the field and wait, waving my arms, as he slowly made his way back down the row. I remember back to the many vacations we had, all of us piled into Grandpa and Grandma's motorhome, headed down the road to some other place that was unknown to us. I can't help but think about Adrienne, Matt and I riding our stick horses all over the farm, pretending they were real. I then remember us later riding REAL horses and mine taking off and throwing me over her head when she decided to stop suddenly! Matt and Adrienne both encouraged me to get back on, and I did.
The picture above evokes in me thoughts of devotions every night before bed and praying as a family at every meal. I am reminded of Sunday mornings and evenings spent at church, learning about God's love. I always think of my dad, seated at his desk reading his Bible and praying, as I know he does every single morning.
One memory that sticks out in my mind is my big sister telling me she was going to live in South Carolina to be closer to James. She would be the first, as she always was. The first to leave, the first to get engaged, the first to get married, the first to have children. Candace and I have come along at our own pace as well, and although we are both now married, I can't take a guess as to who will have children first!
It's amazing the way that family works. It begins with two people meeting, falling in love, and then the rest goes from there! Simply looking at the above picture could never tell you everything about our family, but when I look at that picture and see how those two people have now become a family of 11, I can't help but wonder...what will MY picture look like in 30 years?
Those are fantastic memories, Stace;) Thanks for sharing...:)
ReplyDeleteWow...what a rush of memories! I laughed, I cried and I sighed, all in about a 30 second time span! As I remember it (isn't it funny what we each remember?) I remember sitting on the recroom steps and having daddy ask us about the brother.
ReplyDeleteI remember about Dad, but also Mom sitting in the living room reading her Bible that was in that red Bible cover every single morning and what an impact that had on us. Devotions, flying pancakes, talk of nasty cow stuff at the table, turkey-pie-buzzard-beak, peanuts after lunch every day, horrible family vacation where we ALL took our turn puking, the water leak in the motorhome, and how we all got sick in another way from all the bing cherries. You probably don't remember the sounds we would hear when Daddy was working at the wood-burning stove in the basement.
Remember how anal I was about lining up all those cars and little dolls in a line in the rec room everytime we'd clean it really well and we would only move one at a time? Believe me, after having my own kids, I know the "marshmallow picnics" were as much for mom's sanity as for our fun! Sanity, that's the whole reason I get poptarts! It's so some mornings I get sleep in and let Nason get his own breakfast: Poptarts!
Memories of me walking 22 steps in the alfalfa in summer mornings while mosquitos tore me up, so dad would know where to go with the sprayer next. (I'll probably get some disease from that) Picking rocks out of the horrible little field near Matt's, cleaning up the field at the Weingart place when the floods came through, ice skating on the drain ditch. Sledding into the drain ditch, thinking Dad couldn't see us.
Playing in the corral near the house was one of my favorite memories. Oh oh oh! Remember when the pipe in the field behind our house would have water shooting so high out of it that we could go up there in swimsuits and LEAN on the water? The notes from Daddy were precious, weren't they? I treasure a letter from him like nothing else, and I'm pretty sure I've saved all those too, especially the one from Regional Track meet my freshman year when you guys were in CO for Carrie's wedding.
I remember being happy about Candy being born, because it meant I would get sherbet again at the hospital! They gave mom a steak dinner when you were born and for dessert, she let me share her sherbet!
Wow, I could go on forever! Good blog, it really stirred up some precious memories! Thank you!
stacy...my parents met at the bowlin ally! haha must be a Brunner boy thing to do!
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