Ode to Familia....

 Let me tell you something I have rererealized, I tripled the "re" because I have realized this before several times but once again had the epiphany this week.  Family is everything.  I mean when I was rocking the headgear and at the peak of my jr. high coolness, I thought friends were everything. Then I got older, traded in my headgear for a sweet retainer, got a drivers license and thought that boys were everything.  Wrong-o. The plan of happiness, the plan of salvation, call it whatever the heck you want because when it comes right down to it, it's just the plan of families. Period.  It's the way that you can keep hanging out with the people you love on Earth on a better side of the veil.  I don't really know how that will all work, are we going to have family barbeques on clouds?  Will it just be an eternal family home evening without refreshments or do we all just fly around and read the ensign together and try out for the heavenly choir?  All I know is that even though families are forever, today is part of forever and cross stitching that on a pillow doesn't do me an ounce of good if I don't love being with them now.  Having offspring has only further validated the fact that this better be forever because it is what my life has become.   My whole life I have been worried about the big moment of when I meet Heavenly Father again.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure it will exceed all my expectations and I will set my alarm so I'm not late when the time comes, however when its all said and done, He does have quite the family tree, or should I say forest and after that meeting, He's going to tell me to go back with my family because that is my forever.  Families not only ARE forever, they are what forever is.  Not hopping around on clouds and creating new species of sea horses and algae, but our relationships that we have formed here, in this life. Today, this very nanosecond. We are creating our eternity and our forever with every interaction.  As preach my gospel says, "Heaven is a continuation of the ideal home."   Family doesn't have yearbook day and say superficial things they don't mean.  When they say, "call me," they mean it. You don't have to wear makeup or worry about your love handles in front of family because they love you anyway.  Family can bug you and can make you feel like you want to give everyone a wedgie and make you cry when they don't make good choices, but its only because you love them so much.  I love family because it's a fan club that will never go away, a reality check at all times, and the people that you worry about, pray for, love, laugh with, annoy, and want to succeed more than anything.  Their success feels like your own as well as their disappointments and failures.  Family is deeper than facebook friends, stronger than life.  I miss family.  I love my family. I love my roots and grandparents, all the branches, the leaves, my own baby and husband twig that we have started, I love the whole tree. Family is everything.