Well, it has been over 4 years since I last posted on this site. In fact, I totally forgot about it! Then I got a notification that 5000 people visited this site, and I felt inspired to do an update.

My son Chris and his wife Lanae now have 4 children. Justus–3, Cedar, 2, and twin girls, Eloise and Haisley, 7 months.

My daughter, Maud, and her husband Josh, lost their son, Gideon. He passed away when he was 9 months old because of two heart defects. This is a very sad story, and the four year journey since then has been rocky yet uplifting in many ways. I am glad to say that Maud and Josh’s marriage is stronger than ever in spite of this great tragedy and they are growing through it all.

Being a grandmother to four little ones is giving me a chance to relate to babies and toddlers in a way that I was not able to with my own children. I had blocks that needed to be healed before I could really enjoy very young ones. Now, I have learned to play, laugh, sing, wrestle, run, and be profoundly silly with my wonderful, beautiful, inspiring grandchildren.

I used to feel a lot of trauma being with them, for memories of being a mom where I was alone with my children too much. I had yearned to have a community where we would raise children in a cooperative manner with values that were shared with the other community members–and that never happened.

I have learned to gracefully accept that my children did not adopt values such as veganism, but they have embraced many values that are equally if not more important. For that, I feel so grateful. And I have done much healing with Jesus as my helper so that childhood wounds are transformed by compassion and understanding from the One who can transform even the worst of experiencing into something good.

And thus I can play with my grandchildren with great joy and enthusiasm and creativity.

I never thought about the benefits of being a parent–that having grandchildren would bring so much satisfaction and potential for growth.

I am glad I’m a mom and grandmother.

Well, now I need to get to the planning of Wilberforce Village where I hope my children and grandchildren will be inspired to live.

Check out that site at http://www.wilberforcevillage.com