The One That Started It All!

In 1998, we were given a special gift! At that time, I was a Sunday School Superintendent, Darrell taught Sunday School. We both were in charge of the youth group leaders, Jr. Choir directors, VBS director, plus many other committes in the small church we attended. One if the families offered us their time share for a week only having to pay the $39 reservations fee...what a gift!

At the time, we had our 2 girls, Michaela and Jessica. We could pick from several vacation spots and chose the hills of Tennessee! The exciting addition was that we were able to visit with dear friends of ours who were living right out side of Memphis which was on the other side of the state. We had not seen these friends in about 8 years...we knew them from our Army days in Germany. Scott had worked with Darrell and Carla and I were expecting out first babies at the same time...it was an exciting time for both of our young families exploring parts of Europe together!

Fast forward those 8 years and we were on our way to Memphis--home to Bealle Street, the mighty Mississippi River life and Elvis! It was an fun filled weekend and we were able to remember the past and share what was going on in our lives. 

Their son, Kevin, was a Boy Scout at the time and it was Memorial Day weekend! One of the events he participated in with his troop was putting flags on the head stones to our nations soldiers--an incredible honor! The girls were in invited to help and were given a patch to commemorate their work.

One patch...thoughts raced through my mind as to what to do with it. Do we put it on a jacket? Place it in an album? Many ideas raced through my head but the one that stuck was to make the  girls a quilt and put it on and get them a souvenir patch at places we would take them...I was quilting at the time but sooo glad we purchased a blanket from the Disney store and had it monogrammed with their names...9 Children later I am really excited we chose this option!

So over the years we have added lots of patches and had sweet times with our children sharing memories and hunting for patches! I have a system now for remembering who gets what patch and have sewed on hundreds of patches for my children as well as some of our foster kids and exchange students that have shared our home.

It was that one patch that started a family tradition that we hope will be a monument of sweet memories the children had of spending time together, traveling and doing special activities together as a family!

Thanks Scott, Carla and Kevin for including us in your life and giving us the start to a family tradition. God Bless You!