Make the best of a bad situation

 Our last graduate from BYU  is Hernan. He is graduating with a Maters in Systems Analysis Management and we couldn't be more proud. We traveled all the way from the Dominican Republic to be present for this big event and wanted to enjoy every minute of it but at some point we supposed to have gone to take a photo by the Y with Rachael's family and somehow we never made it. It was probably because I took too long getting ready at the salon so it was a little disappointing but nothing we could do about it. It happened and we were all innocent. It wasn't like we intended not to be there on time for the picture, it was mostly that we didn't allowed enough travel time from Salt Lake to Provo.


 I could noticed that Daniel was a very upset we didn't take the picture but Oh well that's life!
The Almeidas remind me of my aunt Silvia's family. Silvia and Jeff Allred had eight children as well and all very closed in age. I think my aunt was either pregnant or holding a baby in her arms for 20 years. A woman by the name of Amy Anderson who also grew up in a large family wrote a funny story on her blog that I want to share since it had a good message. She wrote:

Growing up in a family of ten kids led to some awesome memories. One memory in particular that I thought about today was the following story:

We were sitting around our massive dinner table (it took a huge table to hold all 12 of us!). We were preparing to sing Happy Birthday to one of the kids in the family. It was always a mad scramble just before a birthday celebration at our house to come up with a last minute gift. We didn’t really get a regular allowance at our house so as kids we typically had no money to buy one another birthday presents. One sibling would grab a banana and throw it in a brown paper bag for every person’s birthday and give what came to be loving known as the “birthday banana”. It was cute how they always thought what was in their brown bag would come a huge surprise for whoever was opening it for their present. One birthday I ran around the house trying to find something I could wrap up and give away to the person celebrating their birthday. I had a large cookie I had been given as a handout or something earlier in the day so I took my cookie and lovingly wrapped it in a dishtowel since I couldn’t find any wrapping paper to use. I carefully carried my special cookie wrapped in its dishtowel to the kitchen table to wait to present it to the lucky birthday child. As we all sat there at the table singing Happy Birthday a cup was knocked over on the table and liquid ran everywhere. Eager to stop the liquid from spreading everywhere my sibling yanked the dishtowel from my hands, not realizing it contained my precious cookie, causing the cookie to go flying across the room into the wall where it crumbled into little pieces on impact. Shock and horror was my reaction. My wonderful birthday gift had been destroyed! Before I could even let the first tear fall from my eyes one of my older siblings laughing yelled “Well…That’s the way the cookie crumbles…” and everyone began to laugh, including me. Tears and sadness quickly turned to laughter and all of us kids sat around the table laughing like crazy. It was a great moment and a memory I will never forget. Then we all ate birthday cake and had a great night.

The reason I won’t forget it was that moment taught a great life lesson to me. When things go wrong in life, as they are always bound to do, we have two choices – we can cry about it and fall apart, or we can yell out loud “Well….that’s the way the cookie crumbles….”and then have a good laugh about it. However we choose the react to the situation it won’t change that our cookie crumbled. It hit the wall and it crumbled and there is no changing that now. So laugh about it, and then go eat some birthday cake and have a great night…then move forward toward the next better and brighter day. And cherish the memories along the way.

I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for my upbringing. I am grateful I had 9 brothers and sisters to be friends with and built sand castles and mud pies with in the backyard. I am grateful for the memories we created together as children and for the friendships we have as adults. I am grateful to parents who provided us that opportunity. And I am grateful to have my own little family that I get to be bonded with for eternity. I LOVE MY FAMILY!

Today’s challenge is to love your family and find time to reconnect with them. It will be worth it.

“Family, where life begins and love never ends”

~Amy

This story had a happy ending and that is the point of her message. Our story also  had a happy ending.  Rachael and her family prepared a nice get together for Herni at the Church. There was delicious food including some cute BYU cookies and she even had decorated it so cute. In that setting we were able to take pictures as well, so it all worked out just fine in the end.