101

Yup, this is my 101st blog entry.
I sat in my girls room recounting another childhood story last night. It is always their last request to either Jody or me before they drift to dreamland. I relived the day my dad drove down the road with my sister and me past our church and then past the ATV store. It was Mom and Dad's 17th anniversary.... I think. Suddenly, dad pulled off the road, turned the car around and headed back to the ATV store. He had an idea and nobody knows how to be completely impetuous like my dad. He pointed at the huge trampoline on display out front and announced that it would be the perfect anniversary gift to Mom. Gin and I wanted it and I mean BAD but we just weren't sure how Mom was going to feel about it on her anniversary. It didn't matter. Dad had sold himself on it in a split second. The salesman quickly convinced all of us that we needed the one with the 25 year guarantee. We took it home, broke open the boxes and pinched our hands a zillion times putting the thing together. Dad was positively giddy and completely sure it was the recipe for an unforgettable anniversary. Ginny and I had finally reconciled ourselves to the fact that we might enjoy Mom's anniversary gift more than she would and maybe we'd just have to live with the guilt. Mom came home with Daniel and we led her to the trampoline. She saw it and laughed. She walked up to it and tears of laughter were pouring down her face. She held onto the side of it and laughed. Then she got on it and jumped and laughed harder. Very quickly she jumped off and headed to the restroom laughing. She came back and started laughing as soon as she got back on it and I guess I had no realization at the time but now I see how my parents were able pull through all of the tough times. It wasn't a perfect life and none of the six people in our family were perfect people but we all instinctively knew how to make something special happen for one another in a completely selfless way. That memory is so clear and yet the one thing I'm fuzzy on is exactly how long Dad just stood watching my mom's joy. I guess my family thinks that I'm fortunate to have a crystal clear memory of my childhood and also be able to cling to the happy moments, put a glow around them and call them my childhood. Luckily, I'm also able to remember the tough times, when my parents chose to love no matter where their partner was at, and I know that is what pulled them through. Mom and Dad have been through alot in the years since that anniversary. As a matter of fact, a house fire took every memento, ever love letter, every gift from every anniversary and every love song Dad ever wrote for Mom but they still have a trampoline for a romantic night under the stars now and then.
Jody loves for me to share it all. He sat and listened to that story about the trampoline and I saw a wistfulness in his expression but also a recognition of what to want. His only comment was "That is a wonderful story." It told me he was so glad that I had that memory and that now we can give our children such memories together. I feel the same unbreakable thread of love in the family Jody and I have been given. It is the thread of love and selflessness that always pulls us through the impatience, the miscommunications, the hard days and the uncertain moments.
But to my parents, I can only say, thank you for the gift. Thank you for the example to follow. The gift of perservering through every hardship, side by side, slugging it out together, for God, for each other and for your children. Of all things, I think to myself that I want to give to my children more than anything, I just want them to always know that we love God, we love each other and we love them more than ourselves.
I think my next blog will be a collection of the love shown by each family member just to me, that I will never forget from those not so long ago days on the farm.