PASSIONs part 4

Family

Wouldn’t it be great to trace your roots and family all the way back to Adam and Eve? I think family history is fascinating and I’m certain filled with stories beyond ones wildest imagination. Family history is like reading an entire library of sorts, just think of your own life then times that by infinity, the stories would be vast indeed!

To know where you came from, where it all began, who began what, why and how. There are so many questions, so many possibilities, so much history, just so many things I’d like to know!

One day perhaps I will. Until then I’m happy with what I have learned about some of my kinfolk. I owe it to them after all for making it possible for me to be here and even perhaps were born with some of their characteristics. What I do know for certain is that I love my family!

Love understated…

I am grateful for my parents and grandparents for their love, support and guidance. I’m wholeheartedly thankful and love my children and all the joy they have and bring to my life. I’m in awe and splendor of my grandchildren that they have brought into this world and their ability, enthusiasm and love they have to raise them fills me with utter bliss. I’m thankful for a husband that loves me and that I can share a life with.

Love…

Family is a love of the greatest kind of love and can be felt, given and shared in so many ways. I think love is tremendously powerful so much so that I decided when speaking of the greatest love I’m going to call it Super Love! Super Love, like love, you can hear it, feel it, express it, receive it, give it, accept it and hold it dear in the most super capacity. It is felt in your stomach, your heart, your skin, it’s felt in your face, your brain and in your breathe.

Super Love

I have always felt this about my children but didn’t really know how to categorize it, truly label it or even express it in a statement. Yet it was always there but in some ways unorganized. That was until I met my first born granddaughter. She was born in Germany while my son was stationed in the Army. I wasn’t able to travel to meet her until she was about 8 months old, and was ever so anxious. Then I met her, I immediately fell in love but that wasn’t all, her eyes, the way she looked at me I felt her love in my heart, that love radiated throughout my entire body as if I became a super human of love with all its powers and might. It was glorious, it was Super Love!

A few years later while thinking about her at a time she was still distant in miles and obstacles I still felt her love and my love for her even though she wasn’t right next to me, I still felt it’s power and wondered if she felt the same.

I began to look at photos and facial expressions and body language and then I got it! I knew it, I saw the power of love plain as day and I sat down and wrote a children’s book about it, naturally I titled it Super Love. 

A quick excerpt from the book (and btw it’s such a fun loving book, you ought to read it for yourself, wink, wink) “Of all the things that matter the most Love is the greatest from coast to coast. Love is the greatest the king of them all, Love makes my heart sing. Love makes me feel so tall.” The story is a tribute about love dedicated to my grandchildren with all their Super Expressions about LOVE!

This week I visited that very granddaughter in her 1st grade class and read my children’s books to them. It didn’t take rocket science to see that when I began reading Super Love there faces went from school child learning manners and curious and anxious to sweet loving pure heavenly angels with love in there smiles and full hearted attention. It was written all over them!

After all the readings I asked the kids which story was their favorite and they all yelled out “SUPER LOVE”!! They came and gave me a hug and expressed their joy for the story that I donated my books to the classroom, they were elated !!

I can truly say that I think about my family first thing when I wake. They are in my thoughts several times throughout the day and they are my final thought and the end of my night. There is no other thought I have that is and has will forever be constant. I truly am passionate about my family. I want what’s best for them, I desire them safe, sound, happy, healthy, productive and of good choices and works. I keep in constant contact with them in all its forms, my family is a extremely large part of my life!

Seeking love…

It was hard back then but my great, great, great Grandfather William Williamson ran away from home with his brother at age 6. They hopped a train headed to anywhere but the abusive home they lived in. His biological father died a few years back and his biological mother remarried only to have died shortly after and he was being raised by his cruel stepfather. William and his older brother weren’t gonna have that, they required, needed, and desired, LOVE!

153 miles away he was taken in by a rancher who raised him and his brother with that love, and thank goodness for good people right? After a spell he met and married the love of his life Joachine Williams and they began a homestead and raised 11 children. I have one clear photo of Ol’ William, didn’t smile much, maybe that era but something in his eyes are tender and tells a story of how hardship and hard things wasn’t going to impact him negatively for there was joy in that beam you could clearly see just inside those crows feet!

I only have one photo of Joachine as well. At first glance I immediately think of a Indian Chief. I honestly thought this is where my Native American Indian lineage comes from, but I was wrong, that’s from my grandfathers side. Ol’ Joachine may have looked like she led a few hostile tribal battles but the stories of her are all about raising a happy and loving home, surviving the hard winters and cruel summers raising all those kids off the land, cooking and cleaning and supporting her soulmate, they loved each other, every one!

I think with hard times such as the ones they endured made her brave and bold plus photos back then didn’t have any filters, she was who she was, a loving wife and mother and a homesteader.

Out of that family came my great, great grandfather Jasper. Jasper,  a pretty good look’n fella kinda reminds me of Wyatt Earp who was played by Kurt Russell in the movie Tombstone. He seemed well put together, studious and ambitious. He worked hard, was always working. He didn’t have time to date so his buddy showed him a photo of his sister who lived in Canada, her name was Mary Jane Baker, he liked what he saw. He wrote her a letter, sent her a photograph of himself and asked her to marry him, a true mail order bride! She liked his letter, she obliged, wrote back with “ I do”! They married and fell head over heels in love.

They had 3 babies, Edna, Margaret, Abb. Mary Jane died 6 weeks after baby Abb was born. Jasper was heartbroken. After some years passed he remarried and the new step Maggie Ann Myers was loving as if they were her own children. They had 3 children together then she died, just how it was back then, hard times but not broken!

My Great Grandmother died when I was 13 months old…

Maggie (Margaret) was a rambunctious girl, social, fit, studious and loved to dance. Dancing and music were her favorite things. She knew her husband as a youth, they use to play marbles together. Ellis Hayes could sing, dance imitate, he played the violin, he was a magician and could do anything entertaining. Maggie shared in a memoir she loved how talented he was.

Ellis was every bit a jack of all trades, they later married and he and Maggie had 5 children. Out of those 5 was my Grandmother Inez.

I loved my Grandma Inez with all my heart!

Inez loved her siblings, she loved life. She played with her dolls, and always wanted to be around her dad. She, like those before her had her fair share of tragedies but again a survivor.

Inez married Sam Hubert Armstrong.

Sammy loved my grandmother, he was a good provider, he was good looking, he served in the Navy in WW2. He wrote my grandmother to marry her, they eventually married, they had 5 kids and out of those, the eldest is my mother, Marian Jean Armstrong (Nolte, Milo). I spent most of my young childhood weekends at my grandparents house, never, ever was there a shortage of love from them to me, I was so blessed and probably spoiled, spoiled with Super Love!

My folks, in a nut shell…

My mom loved to sing, she sewed, she played Laurie in Oklahoma, she met my dad in High School, they were both in choir, fell in Love and married right out of High School and began a family. They had 4 kids.

My dad Dwaine Nolte had an indomitable spirit to serve and be a good steward all his youth. He was in Boy Scouts and JR ROTC, he would go out of his way to help old lady cross the street. He joined the Army after he married my mom then became a Police officer.

My parents are alive, kick ‘n and yes you got it, they love there kids, grandchildren and great grandchildren!

Here I come…

They had me May 5, 1971. I’m the second eldest, middle child.

Genetically

According to my GenoType I am a Hunter. My legs are longer than my torso and my lower leg longer than my upper leg. I am a meat eater, I have a high capacity of endurance, rarely get sick, have dense bones but a small frame.

Mentally…

I love to lead and strive to grow in leadership. I’m a realist. A straight talker, straight shooter. I tell it like it is. Things are black and white to me, what’s good is good and bad is bad. Middle of the row is limbo and I don’t like being there or anyone else as I find it indecisive and Grey. I’m principle centered and love to tell things in a way that can be enjoyed by all with fun stories and life experiences having learned something from them and those of my ancestors. I also love humor, it’s the golden part of life, I add humor to life, with humor and love you can’t go wrong!

My mentality is that of a Sheepdog. I am a protector. I’m a teacher at heart and love to serve and believe I was given a talent to do so in a unique way.

Spiritually

I believe in a Heavenly Father and in a Heavenly mother. I believe in Jesus Christ, that he lived, died and was resurrected and he loves me tremendously. I also feel the companionship of the Holy Spirit, his guide and my deceased ancestors who I think look out for me too. I feel love in lots of places.

Religiously

I am a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. My kids are members of the church and most family on my mothers side but my family is diverse and I honor and respect all my kin folk, what they believe and am happy for everyone’s freedom to choose. I have family who are members of the Baptist, Catholic, Rosacrusion, Methodist, Atheism, Agnostic, and Presbyterian and so on…I do strive to live a loving, joy filled life and serve my fellow human brothers and sisters!

My story, my life is full of epic experiences and stories, all to be shared one day. I can suffice to say I’m excited about life and love myself and that allows me to freely love and Super love others!

My children, grandchildren and husband as shared in the earlier part of this story are some of my top motivation. They aspire me to be better each and every day. They amaze me and I am passionate for all the good and love they stand for. I hope you see why I I use the word passionate. The definition is showing or caused by strong feelings or a strong belief. There you go, I got that belief and feeling because of the Super Love I have for one another, it’s indeed wonderful and exciting!

Stay tuned for another sweet entry and feel free to share my post!

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Thanks friend, until next time, be amazing!

Renee