generations

I have been thinking a lot lately about generations - future and present.  So I must give you a little bit of background for this so that you will be in the loop.  I have two sisters - Candace, the crazy I live with, and Brittany, the one with the precious little nieces and nephew!

Yes that redheaded little girl in the middle is our sister by blood.  She made it really easy to tell her she was adopted when we were little!  haha just kidding!  We are all very close - I mean don't get me wrong, nobody can make me more angry than those two girls but nobody else can say that and get away with it.  I like to think we are best friends and sisters. That's what you get when your mom sends all of you to the same bedroom and you are not allowed to come out until you talked and worked out whatever your were arguing about.

We grew up surrounded by family as many of them live on the same street as our parents, and summer time meant spending time at Mamaw and Papaw's house.  It was during those summers that we forged some of the closest friendships and shared experiences that shaped us into who we are.  We are still very close to these two crazies - yep they are as tall as church steeples.  A trait that must have come from their father's side.  

Now that we are all grown, we still go to Mamaw and Papaw's house on Sunday to eat lunch as a family.  Things are a little different now, and that is the subject that has been on my mind lately.  All four of us, plus Mallorie (Ben's precious wife), still sit at our kid's table, but we are no longer the youngest members present on Sunday.  Ben and Mallorie have two precious boys.  Brit has three children.  Candace, David, and I are rocking the single life.  We all have grown up jobs and grown up lives.  

Somehow things changed without our realizing, and we went from being the future generation to the present generation.  We went from being the children running around driving each other crazy to the one's chasing the children.  I was blown away upon this realization to be completely honest with all of you.  I suppose I thought I would recognize this great passage of time or there would be some sort of marker on the road that said, "Caution, you are now entering adulthood."   It is now our responsibility to make sure traditions like sunday lunch, respecting the elders, and big holiday get-togethers still have a place in our world.  We are those people shaping a world for children - how scary is that?

It is slightly scary to think about, but I think, in reality, we already do that.  Ben, Mallorie, Brit, and Jonathan are amazing parents to wonderful children.  David, Candace, and I are very involved in our nieces' and nephews' lives.  Our parents along with Aunt Debbie and Uncle Phil are amazing Grandparents to those precious babies.  All of us do our very best to infuse the love we received from our own precious Grandparents into every experience.  So even as we continue to figure this life out, we are shaping their worlds and making memories.

So we have become the present generation - no longer the wait-and-see.  We are the here and now - it is time to make that difference we always said we would!  It is time to be the people that we have fought to be!  Tonight I am full of love for my family and cheesy inspiration, so I will leave you with only this...