Right Across the Road

In three weeks we will be changing our chosen state of residence from Virginia to Texas. My family lives there and I have been itching to live near my mommy since she moved away from me three years ago. I am the oldest of seven and five of my six siblings live there. My brother Joel has his little family living in Hawaii right now (the bum). My brothers James and Jordon have new wives and they both live within spitting distance of my parent's little ranch. The last three sibs, Jacki, Jeremiah and Joshua are still living at home. Jacki is attending a ministry school out of state, but is at home when she is not in classes. I miss them all so much. I miss being part of what's going on in their lives. I miss the community of being in a big family. It's really like having your own little town.

My family is the most amazing group of people I know. I am completely content with the family God put me into. We are the coolest people I know. We are honest, loving, opinionated, fierce, vicious, loyal, determined, positively positive, intelligent, commonsensical, insightful, direct, fun-loving people. We probably talk too much. We definitely fight too much. We were raised talking! We said what we wanted to say. And we were never discouraged from that. We were always honest about how we felt... at least how we felt about what somebody else was doing. Or saying. Or thinking. Or feeling.  We were keenly attuned to people's emotions. We called each other on everything. We still do. I love that about us. Sometimes we are hard for other people to stomach. Especially people with low self esteem. Not that we don't have low self esteem ourselves. We are delightfully self-depreciating (though, sometimes I think we put on a bit of insecurity to keep other people from thinking we are too sure of ourselves). We are proud. We have both the good kind of pride and the bad kind. We love each other and see the quality in ourselves and our ways, but we also have the poisonous, ugly pride that tries to make itself seem better than others. We fight the ugly kind and try to hide the prior. Both things are hard to do. We are just so wonderful, it's hard for other people not to notice. I jest, of course... kinda. I've read that humility is simply being able to admit that someone else is better than you when they truly are, not down-playing ones own qualities and abilities and taking joy from them. I think that in most cases, we are pretty good at that.

I, along with all of my brothers and my sister, was home schooled from the beginning of my education to the end of it. We were relatively secluded from the outside world. We were perfectly protected, I believe. Not over or under guarded from the wiles of the world. My parents, thanks to the hippie movement, had the desire and the ability to do things differently. They did. I am so glad that they did. I love that I have a different perspective than most people in this country. I love who I am and so much of who I am comes from the identity I developed in such an expressive, safe, loving, accepting, challenging environment. I had no pressure to be anyone but myself.

My parents have always had such a tangible relationship with God. My mother has always been my greatest example. She is the most wonderful woman in the entire world. I hope I am a quarter as spectacular as she is. My parents taught us morals and kindness, generosity and hospitality. They taught us that Christianity was not about following dry rules and rituals, but about loving the Creator of the universe and serving Him with your entire being. My parents were not religious people, they were righteous people.

I can not wait to be right across the road from them! That is where I am going to be when we move to Texas! Withing walking distance. I am so excited and feel so blessed. I know that being there with them will help me so much. I feel like a fish out of water. There is just no one in the world like them. They are my family. I know that we won't all be together on this earth, but I know that we will all be together forever in our eternal home. Our mansions in the Holy City will be right across the road from each other, too! God is so good.

Jenny