Anytime, Any Place..........

I'm sure you have heard that phrase a hundred times in sports. Coaches seem to use it frequently meaning they will play any other team anytime and any place, and win (hopefully). Our family is big college football fans and so the phrase gets tossed around a lot around here!

Every time I hear it, I think of my parents. Anytime, Any Place, and about ANYTHING. Seriously, anything. It can be the dead middle of the night, or on a sunny day, they can be at home, work, in the car, or on vacation, and it can be about something ranging from totally awesome, to earth shatteringly horrific. The amazing thing is, they listen with love and do not judge. Then they do something even more amazing, they help, all this happens with total and complete love and compassion.

I took this for granted growing up, I know I did, I just expected them to be there for me all the time, and they were, without hesitation. I don't really know why, but I assumed that when Cammie and I grew up and were out of the house and married, that maybe the love for us as their children would be less or much different, but it's not. They seem to love us even more as adults and love our husbands and children too! Its wonderful! Now, even with a family of my own, I need them just as much, maybe even more, and now there are more of us that they have to be prepared to have an "any time, any place, and about anything" conversation with. I kind of think they even want too as well! It is the most comforting and safe feeling in the world to know that we have these wise loving people who have experienced lots of the same things we experience to turn to about anything and they show love and compassion. I don't know how they do it!

When I talk with my Dad he just breezes through everything with such grace and simplifies things which is always a weight off my shoulders. My mom is such a strong woman and has an amazing gift of being able to fix things. She makes me laugh when I am done "filling her in on something" and she takes a deep breath and then her mind goes to work on "fixing"! The deep breath she takes she probably doesn't even know she does it, it is just another way that makes me feel safe, and having her as another person to confide in feels great.

When Tanner was born, I finally understood the love that a parent has for a child. I wondered how I could have enough for more children. We do have enough love, more than enough, because we now have 3 of our own to love and worry about. Luckily, that love never fades away, it just grows and gets stronger. I can only hope that Tyler and I can be that same type of open, loving, anytime, any place and about anything parents for our 3 kids. If they wrote a book, not only would I buy it, but I would actually read it!



Thanks so much Mom and Dad for being such wonderful parents and grandparents. You both are truly wonderful role models for me!