Grab Your Rake and Sing Along

Being a parent has been a privilege God blessed me with and to this day I don't know if I am worthy of the children he gave me. I'm thankful for my kids, the two that I gave birth to and the two that I got when I married my husband. What an empty life it would be without the four of them and their families.

One of my dearest customers stopped by today for a donation for the leukemia walk taking place soon in Florence. We talked about her son who has been in remission for some time now. With tears in her eyes she spoke about the day her son was diagnosed with leukemia and the treatments he underwent to get to where he is today... cancer free and helping others with the disease. What an inspirational story!

Things are not picture perfect here at the Tate house. There is a fair amount of bickering and a few knock down drag outs. Sometimes we get mad and barely speak. Some of us are jealous and hold grudges for long periods of time and that's just me talking about the grown ups in the family. I won't even start on the children. But one thing is for sure through it all and even when we say we don't.... we do love each other in our own way. All it takes to realize that is a conversation like I had today .

I spent years trying to force our two families to blend into one big happy family. I thought that I could make everyone love each other and me as much as I loved each of them. That was an epic failure (stole that from the teens on fb). It took me some time but now I realize that things like love and acceptance happen in their own sweet time. I can't control that anymore than I can control the weather. If either were under my control we would all be raking leaves right now and singing Kumbayah.

As difficult as it is for me because I'm a fixer...oh alright, I'm a tiny bit controlling, I am leaving things alone and hoping it works out. If it happens then, epic unfailure (thought that one up on my own. It's the opposite of epic failure). I accept that we are never going to be the Brady Bunch but that's okay because I couldn't afford to pay Alice's salary, anyway.