What a Difference the Decade Makes
The year was 1971. Steve and I were focused on our our wedding day. We had rented our apartment. Steve had moved in and I was eager to join him. The apartment came with an odd assortment of attributes. It had a swimming pool, pink appliances and a walk in closet. The walls were mostly bare as we had only just begun to understand what our tastes were and how they might work together or collide. I'm certain what we had on the walls could have been displayed by any number of other couples.
Over the years we went from an apartment in an old barn to our first purchased house to a home owned by the church to a house owned by my family to a hundred year old house on a Vermont hillside to a house in a development in a large older community in Va, As we moved we did so with one, two and then 3 and then 4 children. With each additional child the moves became more complex with more toys, clothes and personalities. Home decor took a back seat to budget constraints and attempts to enforce greater order.
Our baby boy is now father of five and his older brother instead of adding to disorder has produced 2 pictures of state birds representing our home states. Although both of us have lost one sibling as well as both parents, their pictures at various stages of life adorn our walls.Willow Tree figures marking 2 anniversaries join pieces of a Willow Tree nativity set.
Another shelf on the wall holds things like the candy dish that kept melt in your mouth peppermint candies near us in my grandmother's living room.and a small blue pitcher that my grandmother used for sweetened milk with cinnamon to pour on her apple dumplings. Many of the walls hold pictures of the remembered past as well as pictures of those who helped to create the family I remember.
Imperfect people who cared deeply for those they loved have blessed my life even though we never knew each other. My grandfather who purchased a decorative pitcher for his wife instead of the anticipated practical purchase and my widowed great grandfather who carefully wrote invitations to my grandmother's wedding - these are only two of my family stories.
At the center of my husband's pictures is a picture of relatives sitting on stairs, most of them exhibiting some variation of a smile. Only Steve's dad looks like the humor inside of him was so great it had to pop out in not just a smile but a laugh.
What stories have I missed on both sides of our family? In 1971 my pictures were few. Now in our apartment the pictures we have collected over the years are clear reminders of how we have been greatly blessed for the 46 years of our life together, blessings that often were in the works before we ever met. Thanks be to God for his wonderful grace distributed in a myriad of ways.
Over the years we went from an apartment in an old barn to our first purchased house to a home owned by the church to a house owned by my family to a hundred year old house on a Vermont hillside to a house in a development in a large older community in Va, As we moved we did so with one, two and then 3 and then 4 children. With each additional child the moves became more complex with more toys, clothes and personalities. Home decor took a back seat to budget constraints and attempts to enforce greater order.
Our baby boy is now father of five and his older brother instead of adding to disorder has produced 2 pictures of state birds representing our home states. Although both of us have lost one sibling as well as both parents, their pictures at various stages of life adorn our walls.Willow Tree figures marking 2 anniversaries join pieces of a Willow Tree nativity set.
Another shelf on the wall holds things like the candy dish that kept melt in your mouth peppermint candies near us in my grandmother's living room.and a small blue pitcher that my grandmother used for sweetened milk with cinnamon to pour on her apple dumplings. Many of the walls hold pictures of the remembered past as well as pictures of those who helped to create the family I remember.
Imperfect people who cared deeply for those they loved have blessed my life even though we never knew each other. My grandfather who purchased a decorative pitcher for his wife instead of the anticipated practical purchase and my widowed great grandfather who carefully wrote invitations to my grandmother's wedding - these are only two of my family stories.
At the center of my husband's pictures is a picture of relatives sitting on stairs, most of them exhibiting some variation of a smile. Only Steve's dad looks like the humor inside of him was so great it had to pop out in not just a smile but a laugh.
What stories have I missed on both sides of our family? In 1971 my pictures were few. Now in our apartment the pictures we have collected over the years are clear reminders of how we have been greatly blessed for the 46 years of our life together, blessings that often were in the works before we ever met. Thanks be to God for his wonderful grace distributed in a myriad of ways.
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