Life's snowballs

Life will throw snowballs…..

As I was boarding the plane from N.C. to head back to Germany, my father asked, “Well, are you going to blog about this past week?”  My immediate answer was, “no, who wants to read about all these emotions?”  
I was on vacation in Switzerland, when I received the news of my brother, Chris’ unexpected death.  Thanks to Cooper, I had already learned that in the ‘land of snow’ that a snowball can hit you when you least expect it!  The sudden death of my brother Chris, hit our family members like a snowball, each coming from a different angle. 

Now, as I brush the remaining remnants of snow off my shoulders, take a deep breath, give the last hug goodbye and board the plane to head back home to Germany, I am changing my answer to, “yes dad, I am writing about this past week.”   For these snowballs are what make our family strong and I will not dodge them by ignoring this past week. 

I am who I am today because of the family I have and am surrounded by in my life.  Are we a “perfect” family? NO.  We don’t always agree, we don’t all live our life in the same ways, and sometimes we struggle to communicate clearly.   But, when snowballs hit us, we come together to build a snowman and are true to ourselves about the appearance of our snowman. Our snowman may lean a little, but it is a snowman that will be hard for others to knock down.

So, yes dad, I will blog.  There were MANY emotions that we all felt this week in my family, but the emotion I feel mostly strongly- I LOVE MY FAMILY FOR OUR OWN “PERFECT” WAY, AND WE SEEM TO ALWAYS COME TOGETHER TO BUILD OUR OWN TYPE OF SNOWMEN. Rest in peace Chris and know that you gave us all a chance to add one more snowman to our family tree.