My Luther Family

As an only child, I have never been able to truly understand or experience the relationship of a sibling. After I married John, I gained in-law siblings, who are great, but I still don’t have the past experiences or bonding-moments to make these true sibling relationships. However, I feel like my friends from Luther are about as close as I am ever going to get to having siblings. There are a group of us who formed strong friendships early in our freshman year (1992) that have continued to today, 15 years later. (Oh my gosh, 15 years ago we were freshmen, that is so weird!) My Luther brothers and sisters are so very special to me. We sometimes will go a long time without seeing each other, but when we do get together we don’t miss a beat. We just seem to be able to pick up where we left off. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family. One of the great things about my Luther family is that we don’t have the squabbles over when is the Christmas gathering or other things that come up with other families. We have seen each other through good times and bad and still love each other dearly. We have cried together, laughed together (A LOT!!!), rejoiced together and supported each other through our life experiences. I really believe these are such unique and special relationships that sometimes it is hard to explain in words.

Through the years we have added to our family with spouses and kids. It is fun to see all the changes and to have new members to make our family even more special and unique. This past Saturday, I had the great privilege to celebrate with my sister, Ann as she married the love of her life. The last wedding in our Luther family was in September of 2001, so it had been a long time since we were able to “party it up.” Well, our sister Ann had watched us all get married and start families and had celebrated with us each step of the way. Through it all, she waited patiently (although it was very hard at times) for God to bring her that special someone that He had for her. And He was faithful!!! Ann and Mike were married on October 13, 2007. I was honored with being a bridesmaid and truly enjoyed being able to be part of this great occasion. Most of my Luther family left their kids with grandparents, so we could have a chance to really live it up as our last sibling tied the knot. While we can’t quite recover as quickly as we used to be able to, we all had a great time celebrating with Ann and Mike. It was a really great weekend!!!

So, here we are now, with one more member added to our family. I think that Mike is going to fit in perfectly and that we all have some really fun times ahead of us. I am so thankful for my Luther family and I look forward to when we can all be together again. Here are a few pictures from the weekend…