Family

This evening, my family celebrated my grandmother's 70th birthday at her house in Gloucester. Grandma invites all four of her daughters' families over for lunch at least one Sunday a month, but this specific celebration brought on a lot more to celebrate than just my grandma (and I tell you--that woman is worth a huge celebration). Deb, Jared, and Leo have been in town and were able to stay through tonight in order to make it to this dinner. On top of that, my cousin Morgan was in attendance, fresh off another stint of trips, this time to Haiti, New York, and Boston.

Even though I really was dead tired most of the time I was there, I made the effort to soak in the uncommon atmosphere. My two great-grandparents we dread the day of losing. My sister's family with no real guarantee of finally coming back home to Virginia from their current residence in Tennessee any time soon. My aunt who is so thrilled by my discovered painting abilities that she starts on a list of subjects she knows would sell in her consignment store if I painted them. My sister Becca. Morgan with her triumphant weight loss and adventurous spirit.

And then my mom telling the story of when she decided she wanted to be a foreign missionary back in college. Her daddy asked her one day when they were working outside, "How do you think you can serve in another country if you're not serving at home?" My mom took him up on that challenge and spent the next summer in Vermont doing some type of mission work. It turned out to be the most traumatizing experience of my mother's life, and she hated every moment of it. Once my grandmother spoke to my crying mother on the phone, she began writing her letters every single day just to give her something to look forward to everyday. My mom told that story with gratefulness in her voice. Then Morgan, choking back tears, thanked grandma for coming over to her house the very day Morgan's dad died of a heart attack to play Monopoly with her when she was 11.

And then I noticed a huge thing. Grandma makes us all feel like the favorite. All four daughters and all thirteen of their kids and then all six of the grandchildrens' kids. She makes getting together as a family something to celebrate every single time by showing us the love she's so quick to say can only come from her own Father.