There are many definitions of family. Some are large, some are small. Some people don't think much of their family by blood, and instead choose to call those close friends family. Some think of their church family, their volleyball/basketball/football team family, their cheerleading squad family, etc...
Families in the traditional sense start off with a guy and a girl. Two people who join together to become one, marrying their likes and dislikes and their flaws and their talents. They somehow take their own eccentricies (I don't know if that is a word?) and make them work.
Sometimes they have kids, and that's the family. And sometimes they bring along their crazy in-laws and out-laws, and it still somehow works. Welcome to Twin Cedar Road, folks...
My Mom and Dad were here first. Actually, my Dad... and then they bought that old log cabin where his Mom's parents lived. I was six. I can remember the wooden floors... ok, maybe I can't, just from pictures. I can remember how cold it is sometimes, and how fun it always was to put the blanket over the door to camp out when we'd lose electricity. Snowmen and Christmas lights. Mom making breakfast on the weekend. Sitting at my Dad's desk while he worked on taxes. Curling up with a good book on the other end of the couch from Mom, Grandma's homemade afghan draped over us, freezing each other with our bare feet. Lots of memories in that house...
So many good memories that when I got married I didn't want to go too far from home. Wallace must love me or something, because he obliged. We started out small, in a singlewide. I've threatened to go home to Mom and Dad more than once. I learned my lesson once when he locked the door on me. We moved to a doublewide, then built the house when we learned our two would be three. Enter the next family on Twin Cedar...
Papaw William and Nana Helen fell in love with Caleb Bates from the minute they knew he was coming... and that was pretty early on, since Nana ran my pregnancy test! They moved out to the country so they could be close to him. Next came Greg and Regina... and now Baby Will is on the way.
I can't leave out Aunt Lisa E. and Greg, who round out Twin Cedar. I think they were actually the third family on Twin Cedar Road...
Anyway, as I go on and on what I'm trying to point out is that here we are, two sets of in-laws, and it works. We love each other. We like each other. The two Papaws and the two Mamaws save my life all the time... I seriously don't know what I'd do without them. Caleb is surrounded by so much love it isn't even funny... and I know that Baby Will is going to be, too.
Today, we threw Regina a baby shower. I'm not a party person... I'm an introvert and I have no clue about decorating or cooking or doing anything like that. My Mom does. And she does wonderfully. My aunts brought food. My Grandma Bert came and looked lovely; you'd never guess she'd been sick a couple of weeks ago. And as I stood there, I realize. I'm blessed. Not just because I have a wonderful family who cheers loud at football or soccer games, and binds together. But because I married into a family that is wonderful, too. Nana Helen and Papaw William and Mamaw Mary...
Wallace and I tell each other every day that we love each other. When the going was tough, we didn't, but we're making it a point to, now. And Caleb hears it from all sides. I may not tell my Mom or Dad, or Nana and Papaw, or my aunts how much I love them... but they tell me all the time. Not necessarily in words, but in actions. By putting his arm around me at Wed. night Bible study, by asking how my week is going. By chipping in and making whatever I need her to make, whenever I need her to make it, no matter how busy her schedule is. By loving Caleb and loving me and taking my side... as if I could ever be wrong.
I'm blessed... and I can't wait to squeeze Baby Will and welcome him to this crazy family. The new Vice-Mayor of Twin Cedar Road... oh, Lord, baby. Don't follow in your cousin Caleb's footsteps... well, maybe not all of them. He's actually a pretty cool kid. Of course, I'm a little biased... and above all, I'm blessed to be Caleb's Mama.
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