My Parents- #3

 Question #3 in THE LIST: What is your relationship with your parents? 
Well that's easy, my parents are my best friends. My only sister and I are 5 years apart in age, so after she graduated and moved away I was almost like an only child for 5 years until I graduated. Because of this I would describe my parents as completely different people than my sister would. The entire dynamics of our relationship was completely different. I felt like I could talk to them about things and they would listen to what I was saying. If I made mistakes, or felt afraid, or was passionate about something I knew I could tell them about it and they would be interested in what I was saying, and more than that,  they would support me. We spent a lot of time together because there were no other kids around competing for attention. My mom and I worked around the house together, she taught me to cook and sew, and work hard. She taught me compassion and service, and how to have a relationship with my Heavenly Father. She showed me what a righteous woman was, and made me want to work toward becoming one.  My dad and I did wood working together and went to football games and wresting matches. He taught me to be trustworthy and dependable, and I taught him how to not take life so seriously. He showed me what a good man who serves the Lord is like and gave me the desire to find and marry someone with those same qualities. This doesn't mean that life was always roses. We fought, and I made some mistakes, and disappointed them sometimes, but we have always been able to work through whatever we faced.

This picture is of my parents going out to work. This is one thing that they taught me to do, and a quality that I truly appreciate.

But they also taught me to love the gospel and serve the Lord. They have always made Him their number one priority. 

When I got my divorce, life as I knew it fell apart. I certainly didn't expect my life to turn out this way, and I didn't know what to do next. And when your heart is broken and everything you thought you knew is suddenly turned upside down, and you need to go somewhere where things make sense, there is only one thing that you can do. You go home. My kids and I packed up and moved in with my parents. It was amazing how I instantly felt safe. Life wasn't perfect, just because we were there, but it wasn't scary anymore. I knew that I had a good support system and people who loved me. It was a place where we could grieve and hurt and heal and start to rebuild our life. We lived with my parents for just over a year, and it was exactly what we needed. It wasn't always easy, we had to adjust to sharing our space and our life and it wasn't always smooth. But it did turn out just fine. We found our groove pretty easily and that year was the biggest blessing in my life and the life of my kids. I know with all my heart that one of the biggest reasons that my kids have handled the divorce so healthily is because of my parents and the safety and love and support they have offered us. I really don't know where we would be without them. I am so lucky that my kids have this phenomenal relationship with my parents. They have the opportunity to work and play with my parents and they are learning  things that I wouldn't have been able to teach them. We are all really lucky to have my parents and their selfless love for us.

This picture is really special to me. My mom owns 160 acres of her grandfather's original homestead ranch. She works really hard there to make it beautiful and take care of everything. The first summer we moved here my kids helped her irrigate the fields all summer. By late summer when it was time to hay the field I took my mom and the kids to the ranch and took pictures of them in the tall grass. This repesents not only the fruits of their labor, but the lessons they learned, and the relationships they grew together. (And yes, most of the time Adia did wear a dress and high heels when working in the field, just like she is in this picture :)

This is just one of the great adventures we love having with Grandpa. We kind of cramp his style when we would rather stop for snacks in a meadow than climb giant dangerous hills at breakneck speed, but he takes us with him anyway, and we love it!