16. Family

Ropers, May 2013

Here we are, in our most recent family picture. I love, love this picture that my friend Jessica from Simple Gifts Photography took of us on the UM campus recently. It's past time to update the pictures on the mantle, and I can't wait to put this one front and center.

I try to make a point to have a professional family photo taken every year. We usually do it in the fall, right after the kids' birthdays, but we skipped it last year because Dave wanted to have hair in the picture. We tried to work it out for late fall, but I really had my heart set on doing it at UM, so we postponed it until the spring when everything is green and blooming. They turned out beautifully. Jessica is so talented and so good with the kids. She didn't give me a single picture of Ella with the horrible, my-mother-is-making-me-do-this, fake smile.

I don't know if it's because Dave had a bloodwork appointment with the oncologist last week or because it's summertime, but my mind has been turning to cancer a lot lately.  His bloodwork was all normal, so we have three more cancer-free months behind us, but I keep thinking about what we were doing at this time last year and how different this summer is already - how fabulously, unworried, and unencumbered it is. I took so many pictures last summer because I was on a mission to capture everything, but when I look at them now, I can feel the worry and fear mixed into the joy. I let it wash over me, and then I praise God for all of that hard stuff and for my happy family of four that survived it and came out better on the other side.

When I look at this picture of us a year later, all I feel is joy.