Living The Dream….

For as long as I can remember I dreamt of marrying the man of my dreams and raising a large family.  I was the youngest of five children and I always felt I got ripped off because I didn’t have younger siblings, therefore I grew up with the desire to have TEN kids so the “me” in the family would have older AND younger siblings.  When I gave birth to child number 7, I told my husband it felt like TEN so I was counting it!  That was kind of tongue-n-cheek, but seriously, my family felt complete when Skye, was born.  My husband said it best “Skye’s the limit.”  Yep, I was living the dream….great husband, a stay-at-home-mom raising a large family.

My dream of raising “perfect” children was also a dream come true!….my children are perfectly normal, perfectly challenged, perfectly unique, perfectly independent, perfectly stubborn and perfectly mine AND I love them more than life itself.  They are the reason I color my hair, fight winkles, don’t get enough sleep……and “most” days I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.  Hit me up on a “mom you don’t understand, I hate you” teenage-rage-kind-of-day and I’ll negotiate a child or two with you.

hmmm…my daughter just called ….flat tire….gotta go rescue her!  Of course these things only happen when my husband is out-of-town, but it’s one of those DOable challenges.

I love my family that has grown to four in-laws and one grandson. I am thankful for the many challenges and trials that keep us on our toes….we are a better family because of the bumps in the road.  God seems to know just what we need to get us out of our comfort zone and to learn what WE didn’t think we needed to learn.  I take a deep breath because I know just-around-the-corner is another challenge to strengthen our ability to understand, forgive, show compassion, empathy and patience.

The lesson at the end of the day is always the same….LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY.   That part is a piece of cake…..Easy. Done.