All the Children of the World

This picture portrays just a part of our "One Big Happy Family." Four families are represented here and there are 3 more not shown, including mine. Welcome to my husband's side of the family. He has 3 brothers and 3 sisters. I refer to them as Brother#1, Molly, Lean-E, Brother#2, Turtle Gaurdian, Papa D & Little M. The first 4 siblings have 3 kids each, Turtle Gaurdian has 1, Papa D has 3 (that's me!) and Little M has 2. If you count Lan-Lan (Molly's live-in nephew) that makes 19 muchachos. OK, now you are probably wondering....How do you buy Christmas presents for all those people??.... And I would say, Good Question!! But the good news is, I don't. We do a name exchange or a white elephant gift-grabbing game.

So there's your little introduction. There's a lot I could say about this group, and I'm sure I will in the future. What I'd like to share with you today, is that the picture you are seeing is a fulfillment of a childhood vision...or wish...whatever you want to call it. Let me explain:

When I was five I used to go to Sunday School and sing all the little songs. One of them was "Jesus loves the little children." I won't type out the words of the song for you because most of you already know it, if you don't, let me know. Anyway, when I sang the song I used to look at a picture on the wall of children from many nations, standing in a circle holding hands. They each wore his or her traditional native dress. I would sing the song, look at the picture and think, "I wish my family looked like that." Now, I'm SERIOUS!!

I really used to wish as a little child that my family looked like what was represented in the picture. Of course, it was really a daydream of sorts because my family looked like anything BUT the picture.

As you can see, my hubby's family didn't start out looking like the picture in my mind either. Here are all of them together circa 1968, before me and before Little M. It wasn't until they all grew up, started having babies and getting married that the, shall we call it, "flayvuh" really started to take shape.

I'm explaining all of this to you, not so much because it matters to you, but because it matters to me. This was a vision in my heart, a wish...and now it is my beautiful reality....so listen up:

Brother#1 married a dark haired "whitey" and have three "blondie-blue-eyed" kids.

Molly married The Yeller From Alabama (he likes to yell @ refs during basketball games) and they have three gorgeous brown-skinned-always-got-a-rock'n-suntan daughters. They also have Lan-Lan living with them until the school year's out. He's TYFA's nephew from Alabama.

Lean-E married IGCYKLS (I'm Gonna Call Your Kid Little Shit). Now he must be part Native American, but when he's worked outside all summer he looks like he's come from somewhere south-of-the-border. Beautiful kids, beautiful kids...2 boys and a little princess (now ages 24-16).

Then there's Brother#2. He was in the Navy, walked in a shop and saw this gorgeous Phillipino lady behind the counter. Needless to say, he went back to that store many times! They now have 3 stunning brown-skinned-always-got-a-rock'n tan kids.

Next is Turtle Gaurdian. She is single and has a very handsome son that I don't get to see very often. Boo-hoo! Miss you TG!!

Papa D has one "blondie-blue-eyed" kid (that's what my Phillipino sister calls him) and 2 brown-haired/brown-eyed mix-n-match your gene pool kiddos.

Oh friends, and last but not least Little M. He married a cute little 'gal who was born in Vietnam and has lived pretty much her whole life here. I posted their wedding picture yesterday, and like I said, one of these days I'll tell you about their traditional ceremony...that's another childhood dream come true. Before they started having children Little M started learning Vietnamese. Now they have two adorable bsagrt kids who are fluent in two languages @ 5 & 3 years respectively.

I have photos of most all these gorgeous kids in the flickr badges in the sidebar of my blog. One badge is of my Phillipino Family, one is of Lan-Lan's Basketball game last night...he's in the WA State Championship Playoffs, and you can see some pics of Little M's boys in Tippy's BB Game flickr badge.

So thanks for letting me indulge myself in Thankfulness to the One Who Puts Dreams and Wishes in our Hearts and then Makes them Come True! (uh....that would be God, folks!! teehee!!)

For more on Lan-Lan (Orlandor) click here and scroll down to Prarie.