The Laughter And The Healing (Wisconsin. Part 1)

We don’t get to see our extended family very often since Steve’s family lives 350 miles away and most of mine lives 1100 miles away.    And so getting to be with extended family?  Well, it’s a treat.

It was an especially meaningful gathering this year because it was Meagan’s first time to meet Nathan’s side of the family. She fit in just like she was made for us.  (And she was!)

She even taught everyone her famous Cup Game which was great fun.

We stayed with my sister Debbie’s family for the five days that we were in Wisconsin and were welcomed by little cards and chocolates that she left on our pillows.

She also made her famous  buttermilk pancakes which were worth the drive all by themselves.  (I won’t tell you how many of them I ate but it was a prodigious number.)

One of the Big Events of the week was when Steve volunteered to teach both Meagan and Nathan how to drive a stick shift. They borrowed Debbie and Randy’s yellow VW Bug and off they went. When it was time for them to fly back home, they went with the happy knowledge that they were stick shift veterans!

The reunion was full of happy hugs and even happier hellos. My brother Phil, gave mom one of his signature bear hugs when he arrived with his family from Milwaukee.

Here’s Nathan with three of his five uncles.  The fella to his left is one of my brothers-in-law; the other two are my brothers.  (And the head poking in between them is Levi, my nephew.)

There was a basketball war that went on most of the afternoon with the old guys trying to keep up with the young guys.  The young guys were impressively energetic; the old guys were impressively entertaining.

Their basic modus operandi was to move as little as possible and let the ball come to them. In contrast, the young guys chased the ball with an alacrity bordering on maniacal.   Amazing what a difference a couple of decades can make.

Steve and my oldest brother, Tim, are just 7 days apart in age.  (Both are fifty-five.)  Their elder statesmen hijinks were highly entertaining.

I stood with Meagan for a while and watched the basketball battle.  Nathan had been happily occupied by the game for a few hours and I was a little worried that Meagan might feel neglected without her new husband at her side.

However, it brought me great joy to hear her say, “You know, Mom, I’m so glad Nathan is getting a chance to do this today; he really needed it.”

A wise and understanding wife. What a treasure.

Of course, every family reunion has to include a plethora of pictures.

Here is my mom and five of her seven kids.  One missing brother had in-laws visiting, and the other missing (unofficially adopted) brother is a missionary in Venezuela.

The cousins!  (Four were missing.)

I thought it would be fun to take some pictures of the people who were taking pictures.  So I did.

From left to right: my brother Tim and his wife, Berit; my brother Phil and his wife, Carol; Steve and me; my sister Ruth and her husband, Arnold; my sister Debbie, and her husband, Randy.

One of the best things about getting together is having the chance to sit down and  just talk. In one particular conversation with my sister, Ruth, she happened to say that things always seem to  look better in pictures, and life stories always seem to come across better when they’re written down.

I’ve thought about what she said a lot and it has occurred to me that anyone looking at this collection of assembled life stories, smiling people, and happy moments might be prone to think that our family is made up of nothing but smooth sailing and  good times .

But our family has been through deeply troubled waters over the years.  We have also been through healing, a process that continues to this to this day. And I truly think  that it is the pain and the healing that has happened in our family that make the pictures you’ve just viewed all the sweeter.

Just like the sun shone through these ordinary cups (that bore our names) and created a beautiful pattern, so  forgiveness and hugs and laughter mend the brokenness in our lives and allows lovely light to shine through the spaces of the healing.

And something beautiful is created–an imperfect, flawed, loving, laughing family.

Note: We made it safely home last night after eleven days and 2700 hundred miles. Snowy got swarmed with sister and mama hugs.