home sweet home

Last weekend Johnny, the girls and I went to a family reunion for Johnny's family. this was the first time we had seen these people since we got married (yah, I remember a lot about meeting new people on THAT day) if at all. In the afternoon, johnny took the older girls to the lake for a fishing expedition, while I stayed back to keep an eye on Ada. The older ladies were inside reminiscing over family albums, but I sat outside on the porch with the "old" men.
It made me realize how much I love my wonderfully dysfunctional family, all sides of it. These men sat on the porch discussing how they terrorized their parents. My "uncle" snuck out of the house and took the family boat with his friends, they ran the boat into a tree and split it down the middle and then hauled the leftover pieces home to show his dad. What would I DO if my son brought home a shattered boat that he wasn't supposed to be using? Probably the same thing his dad did; he leapt off the front porch over the railing, fixed the boat, and then out of frustration, sold it.
That afternoon I laughed, I gasped, I cried. I heard stories of the vietnam draft, of family life, I saw the adults love on my girls and get psyched about their little loves, and I fell in love with my family again.
I look back at my family and even though we had our arguments, we can also be very open with each other. My mom and dad were there for me in my hardest times, and allowed me to hear their struggles, which prepared me for my marriage. My brother and I had horrible sibling rivalry, but I feel like we relate to each other so much. For instance, my brother tried to shut me out of the house to tease me in front of his friends, and ended up slamming the sliding glass door on my foot, almost breaking it. But the most beautiful thing I've ever heard was at one of the only youth retreats we ever went on together to my future college (CIU). He told my friend Renee that he envied me that I could be friends with anyone, and easily fall into place. That has stayed with me for 15 years and I know that my brother loves me. My sister let me visit and stay with her in college when I was only 9 or 10; what a loving sister!
Every family is dysfunctional. We all have that crazy relationship with our parents, our battles with siblings, that funky aunt (ok and I think she really is about the coolest aunt that I could share anything with), those grandparents that wipe the smudges off your face with their spit, and the cousins that although you haven't seen in 10 years you could probably fall right back into rhythm with. Now I have 2 more families (plus 1 because my MIL is remarried) I can enjoy the stories that come with my MIL's family and my FIL's family and the step parents and their kids and their kids. It makes me smile that one day, I'll be part of another 3 families with my girls (hopefully) and hear their dysfunctions and just laugh (or maybe write a book)!!! look out for the posts that come in the next few years, I'm sure they'll be great.