During our recent trip to Missouri we had the opportunity to take family photos. Joanie suggests this one of us 4 turned out to be the best one of the night. I'm biased, of course, and agreed with her even though several poses turned out great for all of us.
The gathering was supposed to be for an updated version to include our new niece Trinity. However, since we were all dressed up and ready to go we took advantage of the situation by posing for our own pics.
I don't know how the photographer ladies did it but almost everyone is looking somewhat towards the camera. Here is my great family:
On the top row there is my older (not bigger) brother, BJ with his wife Debbie and their daughter, Lexi who was born in the same week as our two monkeys. Ma and Pa are in the middle. The bottom is lined with my sister Joanie's family including her man, John, and her 4 kids: Eli, Silas, Daphne, and baby Trinity.
And one final picture we took includes the chain and legacy of the Webb name. Easton is the last of the Mohicans so to speak as the only male to carry on the Webb name in our particular lineage. All of the pictures turned out very well, but this one is the most meaningful to me. There is so much more than just the name being passed down from Dad to me to Easton. This is just a visual representation of all the wonderful blessings that started with my Dad.
At some point in my Dad's childhood he made a conscious decision to change the direction of his family tree and rewrite the story of his life. If anyone ever had a right to blame his family for a lack of success it is my Dad, but he didn't. He didn't take the easy way out.
Dad wasn't shown love, but he showed to us. He wasn't shown how to be a father or husband, but his example set the standard I use to measure myself and others. He's not a super-human with special powers. He recognized his family was not functional and chose to take responsibility for his own household. I'm thankful Dad chose to pass down blessings instead of curses. The blessings are evident every day of my life. Seeing all of our faces in the family portraits trigged thoughts of gratitude. I think, "Wow! My life would be so different if Dad lazily applied the monkey-see-monkey-do method of parenting."
Sometimes I write here as the thoughts come into my head so some content is scattered. There are better ways to get the point across for my thoughts and grammatically I could use some help from Debbie and Joanie, but it's the best I can do with the time allotted. Speaking of time... The bed is calling.
See you soon!
2 comments:
I love the pictures of your family but especially the one of the 3 Webb men! How handsome and precious!
Love to all,
Oma
It has always been my hope and desire that my sons would be better fathers than me. I know that my father had more obstacales to over come than me and probably worked harder because of it. I feel like I had to do better so my sons could build on it and do better. I am very proud of both my sons. They are both better fathers than me. Their sons will build on what we leave them. Easton will have a great chance to acheive success at fatherhood. I am sure it will be a priority in his life as well. Love Pop Phil
Post a Comment