Legacy

Family is one of the greatest blessings in my life. I come from a very large family on my mom's side. Like, I have 87 cousins. My Grandma Janet Ray's maiden name is Andersen, and each year every female Andersen descendant is invited to a 2-day women's conference called Legacy.Yep, the family is so big we have our own women's conference. It used to be called AFRICA (Andersen Family Reunion Including Cousins and Aunts), but I think the men made fun of it so much that they changed it, haha. I love it because I not only get to see my cousins and aunts, but I get to meet more of my mom's cousins and aunts. There are usually 100-150 women there, mostly ranging from college age and up. Seriously, you will never go to an event with more women and babies and women nursing their babies than this conference. Each year, a member or two of my grandma's sibling's families are in charge. They pick a theme and then decide on speakers and topics and what to eat and what to sing. There is always plenty of singing, and I love it. The topics range from healthy eating to training children to motherhood to being a good mother-in-law to grandmothering to discipleship to defending the family. I love learning at this conference, and being surrounded by these women inspires me to be better.

I come away from this conference every year so grateful to be a woman. I come away with a stronger testimony of the sacredness of motherhood and the divine roll mothers play. I come away with ideas on how to be a better wife and mother and disciple. These women are so inspiring. I was having a chat with my second cousin, LaDawn, who is currently expecting her tenth child. Now, this isn't unusual for the Andersen family. LaDawn comes from a family of 14 kids, and there are plenty of other families there with 12+ children. AMAZING. Anyways, I said to her, "LaDawn, how do you do ten children?" She responded by saying that she can do it because of heaven. Heaven helps her each day. She said her life is complete chaos all the time and that she has had to learn that her life doesn't have to be ideal and organized and perfect. She lives a life of gratitude for yet another child to love and teach and learn from. She knows she is doing exactly what Heavenly Father wants her to, and that testimony gets her through. She knows He will provide a way for her to do His will. She said that she has nervous breakdowns, but God always helps her pull through.

I am incredibly thankful for my heritage or hard working, faith-filled women who understood who they were and the divine roll they played as mothers. I hope to continue such an amazing legacy on to my children and grandchildren someday.

On Friday night, some of my cousins and aunts got together at Joyce's house in Mapleton to celebrate Launette's 50th birthday. I LOVE seeing my mom and her sisters together. They are such a hoot, and I love seeing how much they love and care for one another. They are truly the best of friends. Anyways, we enjoyed some delicious food and put 50 candles on a baking sheet full of brownies my mom had made. Well, after we sang to her we tried to cut the brownies and they were hard as rock. The sisters were laughing and calling out to, "Get the chainsaw!" My mom was hootin' it up right along with them. They made what could have turned into a sad situation one of the funniest experiences of the whole night. Man, we laughed hard about that.

Such a wonderful weekend.