My Family Tree

I love running on my trail when the leaves have turned from glossy shades of green to fiery red, golden yellow and burnt orange, and start falling to the ground.  I love it when the wind blows through and gathers them from their resting places and tosses them back into the air, and sends them skipping along the trail beside me. 

 The time of year when the pallet of our landscape turns warmer and the temperature grows cooler we are called to remember those things we are most grateful for.

While I am grateful for the beauty of the trees and their restless leaves, I am most grateful for my family tree.  

I am mom to four of the most amazing people I know. The branches of my tree are brilliant and tender, clever and compassionate, strong and kind.

They are silly and witty, but each in very different ways.  

With all of these strong willed boys and the sassiest of little sisters, things can get a little crazy, but they constantly have me laughing!

  

These branches of my family tree give me purpose and direction.  They give me roots.

Two years ago, two days before Thanksgiving the shape of my family tree changed.  A branch was grafted in, and my heart felt whole again for the first time in 18 years

Along with him, came a few more branches. My family tree doesn't take quite the same shape as anyone else I know.  

  I believe we are all part of a greater family tree, but Nan and I  agreed that while on this mortal journey we would graft our earthly trees together to help each other make it through the stormy trials of life.  Eternally connected through this beautiful boy that we both claim.

The grafting process has been a tricky one.  Painful at times, requiring patience, a dash of hope, and an abundance of faith.  But through it all, we have grown together and become so close it's hard to imagine there was a time when all these branches weren't quite so intertwined.  

 

 I have learned that from the experiences that stretch us and force us to grow into that person we have the potential to become, can come the most rewarding of blessings.  Every year as the leaves change colors I will be reminded of the year my tree changed shape. I will celebrate the Thanksgiving season with a heart full of gratitude for the fullness of my family tree.