O Canada! O Ottawa!

On Canada Day, I find it rather appropriate to be posting about our recent trip to Ottawa. It's almost been a week since our return home, yet, in some ways, I'm still living off the emotional high of seeing my family and reconnecting once again. Although the trip was short, it was very sweet!

The activities we really enjoyed: hanging out with Camelia ~ jumping on the trampoline ~ going bowling with the ENTIRE family (50+) ~ going to Calypso Water Park--woooohooo!! ~ bug hunting with cousins ~ swimming at Mimi's house ~ eating Gabriel's Pizza (the best!!) ~ finding two toads right outside the backdoor at my parents' house ~ playing board games with Mel, Sim, and Camelia ~ visiting with great nieces and great nephews (that's a mindboggling thought righ there...that I'm a great aunt!!)

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  There were also the undocumented activities, the more 'real' moments, in my opinion: the conversations at mealtime, in the parking lot, on the deck, in the hot tub ~ the much needed one-on-one time with my mom ~ the late talks with missionaries and family around my mom's kitchen table ~ the emotional rollercoaster I was riding as I got caught up on the good and the bad in my family ~ the sad goodbyes....

I think I've finally grown up enough to say that I wholeheartedly love my family...its beauty and its scars, its brokenness and its hopefulness, its passion and its resilience, its many generations. No family is perfect...but this one was perfectly chosen for me by the Great Designer of families and I thank Him for His wisdom. I pray my family, and the many generations being birthed in it, will forever be known as a family of Christ-imitators. I pray that the Gospel will grab a hold of every heart, young and old, and that there will be much reason to praise God for what He has done in the years to come.

Happy Canada Day to my ever-growing, ever-changing, ever-hopeful family!!