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Random Memories

Random Photo prompts are fun.  Go to your box full of photos (or that flash drive you have full of unprinted pictures) and pick one or two and write about the memory attached to it.

Here's mine:


Savannah and Rion
2004

Once upon a time I lived in Texas.  Seemed we'd never leave that state - after all, Texans KNOW that Texas is God's country.  Everything is better in Texas.  Why on earth would you ever leave?  Except...  there are no mountains, and that's where we felt the call to go.

So we moved to Idaho.  We thought our family would respond with a sense of adventure.  We did.... until we tried settling in.  That's when we got homesick.  We went from having too much family to none.  And church culture is VERY different up here than back home.  That was a blow because we had hoped to rely on the church to help us acclimate.  We were having trouble adjusting.

We also got SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).  It was terrible watching Russ battle depression, the girls were miserable, I was drowning in feeling inferior because I knew we were all suffering and didn't know how to help my family (not to mention my own depression), and little Suzy - our boisterous, happy shiny girl was now sucking her thumb while she held her puppy and curled up in a blanket... ALL DAY.  It was a dark moment for our family.



I began having second thoughts about whether or not we made the right choice to move to Idaho.    Our family members were concerned, and often encouraged us to come back. But I didn't want to fail at this.  And then something happened to lift us up, if not for a little while.  One of the grandmas sent us a big box with Christmas stuff in it.  I can't tell you what was sent that year for Christmas... but we remember the box with the ghost poop in it.  Because that box gave us HOURS of entertainment.  We LOVED it.  And for a little while, we focused on something happy instead of how much we missed everyone.


Suzy and Rion
2004

Crystal and I put the kids inside the box and threw the packing peanuts on top of them and they'd just squeal with delight.  Later when all the peanuts were crumbs we dumped them out and used the box to drag Suzy and Rion around in.  I think it finally ended up a castle or something before it got mauled enough to throw away.  Seriously...  we loved cardboard boxes around here!  The trend hasn't ended either - just the other day I noticed Adam had drawn on both sides of a cardboard box a race car with a driver in it, with him being able to sit inside.  It tickles me that the tradition continues.


Christmas - 2004

Crystal and Savannah 
Suzy and Rion 

That Christmas my sister came up from BYU Provo.  So we weren't without family that first year.  It was the gateway into a long journey filled with laughter, tears, new friends, people who meant us harm, adoption, a mental breakdown, forgiveness and healing.  I know Russ and I made a good decision to come here.  It's not been easy, but we're both stronger people for it.  I think our kids are too.

And we'll always remember playing with the giant cardboard box.  :)

Your Turn!

Pick out a random photo and tell us all about it.

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