After a high risk pregnancy that kept us close to home and a hospital late last year, we had some traveling to tend to. Family had yet to meet Dandelion and others hadn't seen the boys in quite a while.
It was so nice to share our family with the family that I and my husband grew up with - the same ones who loved us through all of our growing. The ones that saw us from early infancy through to young adulthood all the way through to our present. These family members have blessed us abundantly in more ways we'll ever be able to calculate, but it is an abundance we can assuredly call gift.
Personally, I can remember all the ways my aunts and uncles loved on me always, how my cousins and I played every Sunday at our grandparent's houses, sleepovers, birthdays, etc, and how my grandparents were always there to greet me with a hug filled with a love so true - all these memories and more are what have helped form me over the years in so many silent ways. These kindnesses have helped carry me. I know they've prayed for me through all of my transitional points in life and I know this to be true through their words, letters, and embraces shared every time I went home. It's a beautiful thing to see this good and kind love now shared with our littles and my husband.
Similarly, I love how our kids are so adaptable and ready to love. They enjoy their grandparents the most, but love them some time with aunts and uncles, great-aunts and uncles, second cousins and more. The kids always seem ready to play, explore, enjoy, and embrace the gifts that God has shared with us through so many people.
To follow are the moments of gift I was able to capture. There were so many more pictures I had in mind to take but unfortunately didn't! I can remember Dandelion meeting various loved ones for the first time, and regrettably, I didn't have my camera with me or failed to remember to snap the photos when I did. Either way, I did capture some moments of beauty and goodness and there is gift there too!
"I shall not count the hours nor the ways of thy approach, dear Love:
thou wilt always be welcome."
-Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J.
