Family and Easter
We have a sign in our home that says, “The Gathering Place.” It seems appropriate to us because on holidays an assortment of family and friends often come here for food and fellowship. This was true this year over the Easter weekend. Present were two of our four children, all five of our grandchildren, plus our great-grandson. Added to them were a combination of in-laws and friends and boy-friends to bring the total to nineteen.
One more guest was a small bird who had built a nest on the wreath that Alenda (my wife) has hung on the front door. She has at least one egg in the nest, and we are careful to either use other doors, or to open and close it very slowly. With any human activity near the door, Momma Bird flies to a nearby tree, and then watches anxiously. Not wanting to bring any more stress into the world, we usually avoid the area. I hope she forgives me taking this photo.
Grandchildren, and now a great-grandchild, bring particular joy to me. With four children, Alenda and I presumed that one day there would be grandchildren, but we never dreamed how much joy they would bring to us. Dalton was the first, arriving in 1995. He was in our life quite a bit as an infant and then a toddler, but he moved with his parents to South Carolina shortly after that. From that point on, we saw him only once or twice a year. Ironically, he moved back to live within a half hour of us after graduating from high school, and now we see him regularly. He has grown into a fine young man, now married to Brianna and father of Myles, the previously mentioned great-grand.
Dalton was our only grandchild for the first twelve years of his life, but then four more arrived relatively close together. Jadyn was born to Lara and Marcus in November of 2006, with Kaley arriving from Meredith and Duval nine months later. Then Tyler, also of Meredith and Duval was born in July of 2009, and finally Travis from Lara and Marcus in July of 2011. Lara and Marcus live an hour away from us, while Meredith is only fifteen minutes. So, at this time, all five grandchildren are within an hour’s drive. This contrasts with son Chuck living twelve hours away by car and oldest daughter Tanya is a five-hour flight.
I once classified Jadyn, Kaley, and Tyler as “the talker, the doer, and the thinker.” This was when the girls were around age five, and Tyler three. I gave them these labels based on their behaviors. Jadyn chattered all the time, Kaley always seemed to be busy doing something, and I would often observe Tyler simply looking at something, seemingly deep in thought.
One day the above three grandchildren played out my descriptive terms perfectly. They were throwing a small ball between the three of them. I grabbed the ball and hid it under my shirt. In the next minute, I could see Tyler studying the bulge in my shirt, presumably forming the conclusion that the ball was causing it. Jadyn immediately called out, “I know what you did with the ball; you stuck it under your shirt.” Kaley simply walked up to me, lifted my shirt, and retrieved the ball. Of course, each of these three have far more complex personalities than implied by my terms.
I never came up with any similar one-word appraisals for Dalton and Travis. Dalton has won my admiration for his ability to construct and repair things. Shortly after he graduated from high school, he helped me with some project and regularly made helpful suggestions. Periodically he showed me a better way to use my own tools. I told him that the only way for him to improve how he helped me was to learn the art of making a suggestion in such a way as to make me believe it was my own idea.
Travis is also his own special person. He has a way of coining a phrase that makes us laugh. One time Alenda was bringing Travis home during a bad storm, with poor visibility. He was around age five. Coming around a curve, the car tires went off of the pavement onto the shoulder. With that, there was a mild “bump”, and then a different sound coming from the tires. Travis quickly asked, “What was that?” Alenda got the car back on the main road, and answered, “We just went off on the shoulder. We are fine.” Travis replied, “Well try to stay on the arm from now on.”
At eight months of age, Myles has displayed the personality trait of being happy and smiling almost all of the time. It is rare to witness him being fussy. I wish him (and his parents) the gift of staying that way.
Alenda and I feel very blessed with our family. We certainly had our share of bumps in the road, along with a few boulders. The ability to forgive has been needed at times. God has provided the grace to do so.
