Aside from having my entire brood all gathered in one place, the thing I wanted most out of the day was a group picture. But if you know anything at all about large group pictures in which nearly half of the subjects are under the age of ten, then you know there’s a better chance for peace in the Middle-East than there is at getting everyone perfectly positioned, smiling and looking in the same direction at the same time. But guess what?
We did it…almost.
The sun caused a few of us to squint a little bit. The baby
had her fingers in her mouth. The wind blew a few hairs out of place. In
several of them, at least one of the kids looked away to make sure the person
standing next to them was looking at the camera. And in others, some of the
adults missed their ‘que’ because they were making sure the kids were ‘set’.
In other words, the pictures aren’t perfect. But that’s okay
because we aren’t perfect. And if the pictures were perfect, they wouldn’t be showing the real us.
It’s true. Sometimes we get on each other’s nerves.
Sometimes we even hurt each other’s feelings. But in spite of those ‘sometimes’,
we are always loyal, always ready to defend and care for one
another, and at the end of the day we love the fact that we are family and love always wins out over everything else.
So when I look at those perfectly imperfect pictures, I see
my heart and my life’s work looking back at me. And you know what? I couldn’t
be happier because I’ll take my perfectly wonderful imperfect family over
perfect pictures any day.
I hope you feel the same about your family.
Momma D
Copyright 2017 Darla Noble. No part of this can be used without permission from the author.
