Fast and Furious

Colossians 3:12-14 "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. "  NIV

This last weekend was an exercise in total and complete chaos.  Sweetheart and I were quite certain we were going to be sitting in the corner sucking our thumbs before it was all over.  But when all was said and done, we had an amazing time.  The weekend was full of laughter, tears, proud moments, good food, good friends, almost half of our children visiting, and the start of a couple of new traditions. There were of course the obligatory family jousting sessions and sibling rivalry and momentary lapses of sanity.  Lots of prayers were said by sweetheart and I and our friends who knew the insanity that was occurring.  I am thankful for praying friends.  Just saying.....

Our next to youngest daughter got married on Friday.  For that event our oldest daughter and her husband flew in from Chicago.  These two daughters had never met.   Sweetheart gave up a child for adoption when he was in high school and last summer I found her on the internet.  She was looking for him as well.  A wonderful magical reunion occurred and our family grew larger in love and in numbers.  Time and jobs had not allowed us to get all the siblings together.  So this was not only a wedding but a reunion as well.  Just as you would expect, it was a tearful, joyful time. 

 Then it was a rush back home to change clothes and head for the annual PACN banquet where youngest daughter was singing her song, My Little Lyric.  The pregnancy crisis center had asked her to tell her story and sing the song while a video was playing with pictures of sweet baby Lyric. There was not a dry eye in the house and youngest daughter received her first standing ovation.  The courage it took for youngest daughter and her fiance to tell their story in front of a thousand strangers was amazing.   

Then it was back to the house where everyone was staying. We had some on the couch, one on an air mattress, two on days beds and a house full of animals who couldn't figure out what was going on.  We juggled showers and coffee mugs and emotions all weekend long.  We took walks, sat outside and bird watched, played dance games on the Wii, and laughed till our sides hurt.  We had friends over to share in our joy and played Scene It where the girls were ahead by a mile and the boys snuck up on them and trounced them in the end.,  As oldest daughter is a pastry chef, second oldest son is a baker, and I am a mom who cooks ALOT of food, we decided to start a new tradition. Our own version of cupcake wars.  Little did we know we would all be trounced by youngest daughter's fiance who aced the competition with his angel food blueberry cupcakes with cream cheese lemon cool whip icing.  Let me assure you that pride does go before a fall.  Just saying.

As I sat there this evening after all had gone home and my house was quiet once again, I thought of the blessing it had been to have some of our children at home once again.  In spite of the typical issues that arise from having sibling staying together, it was a fantastic time of love and family togetherness.  Sweetheart and I have a large and diverse family with many MANY diverse theories on how the world turns.  But when we set it all aside and just loved each other, it all worked out.  As sweetheart and I looked at our children in church yesterday, we were so thankful to our Father in Heaven that He has given us these opportunities to be together.  Like our big church family, we are all bound to have our squabbles and our rough spots.  But in the end, we are all brothers and sisters in one large crazy family, bound together by love.