The Tapestry of Family

Cemeteries and new babies may not seem to have much in common. But on the day that Kinley came home from the hospital, Randy & I started our day by taking a bouquet to a Topeka cemetery.

We were there to pay our respects to his Grandma Ritts, who would be Kinley's great-great-grandmother (and to the Grandpa Ritts he never knew). Laura Ritts was the mother to Randy's mom, Marie, from whom Kinley gets her middle name.

Jill never really knew Grandma Ritts, who died when Jill was 6. Even by the time I entered the family, Laura wasn't the mother and grandmother that Randy's family had known. I always thought it would have been nice to know her in her prime, since we both love music, church choir and children's church pageants.

But, even without a physical link, the connections are still there, weaving generation to generation, through genes and family traditions.

It's hard to know what family characteristics that Kinley will have. Will she get her Daddy's height? Will she have her mother's gorgeous eyes? All we know is that she is a God-given blessing from two families, joined together, through a new life.

We don't accomplish anything in this world alone...

and whatever happens
is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life
and all the weavings of individual threads
form one to another that creates something.

Sandra Day O'Connor

Kinley has already met her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Moore.

She posed for a four-generation photo on her maternal side.

She dozed with grandparents and uncles and friends from both Eric's and Jill's families in her first few days of life on this Earth.

Family is woven deeply into the tapestry of life.

Families are the compass that guide us.
They are the inspiration to reach great heights,
and our comfort when we occasionally falter.

Brad Henry

Welcome to the family, Kinley Marie!