Family First Friday #18--Going home!

Well, by the time you read this post, I should be well on my way home.  It is a little crazy thinking that you can fly across the country and back again within the same week.  I am so grateful for the day and age in which we live.  As much as I enjoyed graduation and Virginia, I am a West Coast girlie.  I cannot wait to get home to the redwood trees and the beaches that I love.

Do you feel that way too?  Not so much about the land, but about people, your people.  I am glad to go home to my people.  There is nothing like being away to help you recognize how much you love and enjoy what and who you have.  My husband is amazing!  He is an amazing man!  I could not do what I do without him!!  Right before I left, he told the children, "No one is going anywhere while mother is away.  No friends, no outings, no staying late after school.  While your mother is away, we are all in survival mode, because without her we cannot survive!"

It was sweet, to be sure, and it made my heart sing to think that he feels that way.  But the truth is, he could survive without me.  It would be difficult and require a lot of growth and thinking and planning differently but they could do it.  I have faith in them!!  But I am also glad that I do not have to.  I really do love my people.  They are MY people, as much as I struggle with all of their attitudes and tantrums.  (Because we all have them right?!)

I am so very excited for Mother's Day!!!  I get two missionary phone calls!  I love seeing how much their experiences are helping them to grow (missionary, college, marriage--on the horizon-----all of it!).  Motherhood is the hardest, and best thing I have ever done with my life.  On days like Mother's Day, or this trip, where I have time to sit back and really take inventory of the gifts and the people the Lord has blessed me with, I just stand in awe that I have been allowed to be a part of it in some small way (in the case of my children and my spouse, in a large way).  I get to see them in just a few hours!

I imagine that is how our Father in Heaven feels about us, except more.  He is so excited for each of us to 'write our letter home' through that phone conversation we call prayer.  And when it is our time to cross the veil and return to see Him, I'll bet He is excited to see us, even if we aren't so excited to see Him.  He has a little the advantage, I would think, with a constant video cam into our lives and thoughts, but I'll bet the physical separation is still very real to Him and He is glad to have each and everyone of us Home!

Home is not imaginary, it is real.  Those who proclaim that all homes are the same, two mothers or two fathers doesn't matter to the child, they just have not experienced the true power that comes from one man and one woman committed to each other, their children and God.  There is safety there.  There is peace.  There is joy.  That is what each of us is trying to create, to the very best of our ability.  With the Lord's help, we can do that.  It will not be perfect, but it will be as close as we can get until we reach the other side of the veil.

If you haven't read this book---Daughter of a King,, then you should!  It is one of my very, very favorites and reminds each and every one of us of our purposes here in mortality and the feelings we will have when we return Home!

This CD is awesome too (by Jenny Phillips)!

I will try to post this week all about my trip and visits with my two oldest children (now grown men....sheesh ........they do that fast!).