Walk Down Memory Lane

Today's walk down memory lane was tough for me to decide where to head. As I started flipping through my pictures files, I soon figured it out. My joy in life is being home with my kids. I also find great joy in being an aunt to so many kiddos who I just adore. When they were all little, they were at my house so much. Now that I have two teenage niece and nephews, they are so busy and do not have as much time to come hang with "Neeny", which is what they call me. I think this picture speaks a thousand words. It may not be developed very well, but I still love it.

Here are 7 of the 10 cousins sitting on my back deck (before we painted:) eating apples. All the kids had been over playing in our backyard and the three moms were there talking. We use to take bike rides together and have milkshakes afterwards. Such fun! These kids were together so much, I think they thought they were siblings! Our house seemed to be the place to meet up.

This picture was taken when we had our second Cousin Sleepover at our house. Here all of the cousins were able to make it, which blessed us so much. My girls loved having everyone at our home. I adore that they did not care if someone was "too little" to play with or that they were "too big", they just played. I had 10 year olds playing with the 4 year old and loving it! We had girls playing game boy, we had boys beading. It was just them loving being together. At one point, I had 5 kids around my kitchen table painting, two of which were not happy that I had turned off the tv at that time, but loved it by the end.


Why is this so precious to me? I think I have always felt that these kids were my mission field. God chose me to be a mom to the girls in my home most definately, but I also have always felt a calling to reach out to these kids in a way I never had in my childhood. I loved having all of them over to play. I do recall being really tired, but I loved listening to them talk and giggle. I even enjoyed being able to redirect their conversations when needed. I didn't mind the time outs from time to time and I just loved seeing their eyes light up when they walked in our home. My kids were so blessed by the times we all spent together those early years. My oldest daughter still misses having them around because for the first 8 years of her life, they were here so much. Lately, due to busy schedules, shifts in family, parents work, etc, they are not able to come around as often as I would like. But when they do, we all treasure that time. My girls soak up the time they are here and I sit in my chair in my room, listen to the giggles, talking and know this is how it should be. My prayer for all of them is to be close as they get older. They may never sit at the back porch eating apples again, but I pray they will always be there for each other whether it is to take a stand for something they believe in, sit beside someone who is hurting or to share a giggle. I am thankful for the many years of listening to these kids share life and am so grateful to have the joy of being their Mom and Neeny. Now if I can just figure out how to capture the sounds of their laughter in a bottle for the days we need a good laugh!