True Family

It was a good weekend for family.

Friday night Katie came up to spend the evening with us, which turned into spending the night. Saturday morning I woke up before her or Nathan, and as I baked them banana muffins in the early-morning stillness, I could not help but feel amazingly serene at having my best-beloveds sleeping quietly in such proximity to me. True family is not blood, but peace.

Later that day Nathan and I went over to Jeff and Elizabeth's, to join in the massive family effort to Paint the Nursery. Giddy off fumes, hands looking like I'd smeared them with guacamole and sour cream, I picked on Ben mercilessly and laughed at his riposte. True family is not blood, but joy.

Nathan left for Georgia this afternoon, so when I drove down to Prattville for Ben's ordination this evening it was all by my lonesome. But then I sat in a pew with my niece on my lap and my father-in-law's arm resting lightly around my shoulders, and I didn't feel lonesome at all. True family is not blood, but comfort.

And then as I was leaving the church, I got a text- my mother had made it back to town. So I went over to her house and she fed me and gave me books and best of all long mommy-hugs. True family is not blood- but that doesn't mean blood can't be true family.