Family

This weekend I was at a park with some time to spare. I got to watching the Canadian geese on a pond. There were several families of geese. There were two families with 6-8 goslings each, the dad would lead them off and they would all follow behind, mama bringing up the rear. Dad would duck under the water and the littles would all follow suit, though not as gracefully. They were carefree and happy. The one particular little family caught my eye. They stayed off to themselves a little more. At first you would just see mom and dad, then if you looked closely you would see him, their ONE tiny little gosling. He was smaller than the rest and he was an only child. Mom and Dad seemed very proud, yet very nervous. As I sat there watching, I wondered about their story. Its not overly common (I don't think) for their just to be one baby. I wondered if maybe mama had trouble getting her eggs to hatch. Or if maybe some creature raided their nest and their was only one precious egg left to hatch. Or if maybe they started out a family of ten but something happened and now just their one little baby was all that was left. It was obvious they were nervous, they never let Junior get far, and never let anyone get too close. But it was also obvious that they cared very much for their little guy.

I could relate. These poor geese got to see all the families with lots of babies. And since their baby was obviously half the size of the other babies, I'd venture to guess Mother Goose got to see other mamas will full nests. I visualize her carefully building her nest and wating for the eggs to come. Or maybe she had a full nest, but had to start over after losing the eggs. But I could also relate to their happiness and pride in their one baby.

Maybe I am reading too much into the thoughts of geese. But it was a nice lesson to me and a beautiful thing to see.

I am proud of my family. So glad that God made us a family, no matter the hardships, the trials, or the road we had to travel to get here. I am glad I had Klay to travel it with me. Glad we picked up Isaac along the way. And am excited to see what twists and turns the road will take. There were parts of the path that were beautiful, like walking through a field of flowers, yet parts of the path that were scary, like walking through a dark woods. But even dark woods can be beautiful if you look beyond the shadows.