We Are Blessed

A few weeks ago, the McKim family had a 3-day reunion at Rock Springs 4H camp. The McKim family (attending the reunion) consisted of the kids, grand kids, and great-grand kids of Dick and Virginia McKim. I am one of these blessed grand kids. There were a total of 26 adults and 18 little ones (all 8 and under). 

The whole McKim crew

My Grandpa and Grandma Honey were two of the most Godly and loving people I have ever known. My Grandma Honey got her name from her grand kids because she always called us kids "honey" and was just so gentle and sweet. She let us have milk with strawberry syrup in it, there were always cookies in the cookie jar, and usually you could find a Honey Bun in the freezer. She was the one I remember talking to me about becoming baptized after it was clear that Jesus Christ was my Savior. She told me while swinging on the front porch that it was what I was supposed to do once I knew I was a Christian. Grandpa was a jokester. He would come in from working outside and if I was having a piano lesson (from Grandma) he would say "Is that Salty playing the piano?" Salty was the dog that just basically laid in the bushes all day. He also loved music and that is where my love for 4-part harmony came from. As Grandpa got older and couldn't work on the farm as much, he would watch the Gaithers on video. We did this together and to this day I love the Gaithers and can't listen to them without getting teary-eyed thinking of those days. Grandpa was the spiritual leader of our family. We are so blessed. 

Grandpa and Grandma Honey

At Rock Springs, the McKim family had an impromptu Sunday morning service. Much to our surprise it was an emotion-filled 30 minutes. The theme ended up being that our family is so blessed. We have all gone through tough times and many have gone through great trials, but through it all God has proven faithful; completely and fully faithful. We can trust in him. He has blessed us. One of the songs that was chosen to sing was "It is well with my soul". Wow! What a song. Given all our lack of sleep, our memories of Grandma, Grandpa, Tara, and just our gratitude to our Savior for all He has done, we could barely make it through the song. When I imagined our first family reunion- I imagined we would do a lot of singing since Grandpa loved it so much. Music has always been a part of our family. Any outsider listening to our version of "It is well with my soul" wouldn't think it was anything to write about- in fact it probably didn't sound very good at all- but it was one of the best memories I will take away from our weekend. We are SO blessed.