My BFF's



The ladies...Lynn, Lisa, Me, Laurie, Cindi, Shana

This weekend we had our annual family ladies collectibles get together. We get together the first Saturday of December and having exchanged names, all the ladies on my mom's side of the family exchange gifts...things we collect for our Christmas decorating. This time of the year is so fun! We all look forward to it and have such a wonderful time together. We eat delicious food, exchange beautiful gifts, and fellowship together.

It is a wonderful gift to have family who are also your closest friends. Of course my husband is my best friend in the whole world but these women who I spent Saturday with are my best lady friends. Every girl needs girl friends and I only have a small circle of women who I consider my closest friends and most of them are my family. It is a blessing in life to know you have people who have a vested interest in your life regardless of what is going on because they love you because you are family. As I ponder the important things in life, the really important things, I can't think of one more important than family except my relationship with God. They are glue to my life helping me hold things together when things get loose. They are sure footing when everything else gets unstable. They are comic relief, safe places to tell secrets, constant prayer partners, truth tellers, encouragers, honest challengers...they are friends in the truest sense of the word.

Abby & Kate

Laurie (my mom) and Lynn (my aunt) are sisters and daughters of Roger and Lucy (my grandparents); with the home going of Lucy, they are the matriarchs of our family. Aunt Lynn has two girls, Shana and Lisa. My mom...has me:) and my uncle Larry gave us Cindi. We even have all our daughters, nieces, granddaughters, and cousins involved. I have Lauren and Abby, Lisa has Kate, and my brother gave us Madilyn and Emma. In all 3 generations are represented and before my grandma went home to the Lord, we had 4. How often does this happen I wonder as I sit in a room with some of my most favorite people in the world? How often do people set apart time with their family, focus on their family, make traditions that include generations? I hope it happens often, I hope more people than not get to experience the beauty of being in comfortable peace with family who are also your best friends.

But I don't think it happens nearly as often as it could. So many families are apart, either by physical distance or by emotional distance. So many are hurt and out of that hurt they hurt others. So many are broken, wounded, damaged, grieving, lost, or too busy. The attack on family is intense and has been for so long that the institution of family itself has been forced to reframe itself. Now books and TV movies are sold to show what the modern family looks like; one mommy or one daddy, two mommies or two daddies, step-moms, and step-dads, grandparents who are mommy and daddy, or foster parents, or adoptive parents, or aunts, or uncles, or older siblings, the list goes on and on. And while every single one of us deserves the white picket fence with a dog in the yard, dinner on the table, and homework done in the den...it just doesn't happen for everyone...for nearly anyone. So we hold on to the family system we have, we make it work with one mommy or one daddy, or however it looks and we make it work. And while we may deserve better, what we have can be incredible too and with a whole lot of work, prayer, and love what is built is a beautiful family.

Silly Cousins...Lisa, Cindi, Leanna, Shana

Lisa, Cindi, Leanna, Shana

In my family we don't have the perfect family stories either, we have all walked through hard things, fought for our families, some have lost the fight and we have divorce and heartaches in our pasts. We have hurts, redemptions, restorations, healings, and hard fought battles represented in our family. We have married folks, single folks, aunts, uncles, cousins, second & third cousins, great aunts, great uncles, grandparents, kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, mentors, confidants, we have it all. And in all the jumble of people that God has lovingly placed together in this family we have every type of personality represented, every opportunity to forgive, every reason to get upset, but we work hard to keep peace, to forgive, to not be offended, to love each other with extraordinary love. As I sat at Lisa's house the first Saturday of December in 2011 I realized again how incredibly blessed I really am...my favorite people are my family, they are my dearest friends, the people I want to spend my time with, and invest into. I am equally blessed to have friendships outside my family but these women are my family, my best friends. How exceedingly blessed am I to be apart of this family!




Abby and Cindi



Lisa and Kate & Leanna and Abby



Lynn and Laurie

Me and my sweet Abby

Me and my sweet girls: Abby and Lauren

Me and my nieces: Madilyn and Emma



Me and my mom, Laurie

Me and my mom



My mom and my girls

My mom and my nieces

Abby and Lauren

All the little girls: Kate, Abby, Emma & Madilyn

3rd Generation: Abby, Madilyn, Lauren, Emma & Kate

Lynn, Lisa and Kate

Shana, Lynn & Lisa

Kate and Shana