today is all about my sister-in-law, meredith. or as i nicknamed her meme (it is pronounced may-may). as you will see, a lot of my relatives go by nicknames (meme, toots, bud, uncle fred)... mostly to avoid the long arm of the law...
my older brother max (older by a year only) had the ONLY moment of clarity and wisdom in his ENTIRE life when he chose meredith to marry. though i will say that my mom had a LOT to do with that whole event transpiring....
see, max had broken up with that GORGEOUS and sweet and perfect girl (i know WHAT WAS HE THINKING?!?!?!??!?!?!?!) and meredith was broken hearted (WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?!?!?!?!?!? THAT WAS HER CHANCE SHE SHOULD HAVE RUN LIKE THE WIND FAR FAR AWAY FROM US perhaps settling somewhere in the vicinity of an archipelago!!!!!!!) instead of heading to the nearest archipelago (word of the day, you are KILLING me) meredith went to my parent’s house to pick up something that she had left there and ended up breaking down in tears in front of my mother, so great was her sadness over perhaps losing the best thing in her life...
a chance to be related to me....
anyway, my mother in all her wisdom, gave meredith a little advice. she told her to go out on a date with someone else and let max see her out on said date and all would be restored. and meredith, smart girl that she is, followed my mom’s advice to the letter. she went to a wedding with some guy, max was at the wedding and saw her. and i believe the rest of the story involved max on meredith’s doorstep THAT VERY NIGHT telling her that she is the only woman in the world for him....
the best part of that whole story is that max NEVER knew the story until a year ago when mom and meredith and i were talking about it at the beach house. max said that he felt tricked by the whole thing and we agreed that YES he had been outsmarted by a couple of women and what did he want to do about it...
and he had nothing to say.
because meredith is the best thing he has going for him....
besides me as a sister.
really, meredith is a gem. she is so funny (i love it when she busts out with a “my baby’s daddy” to refer to max) and so laid back and so loving and so skinny (i am trying to make sure that she never leaves our family with all these compliments coming her way). really she is skinny and after having those four children... it is unnatural. and i call on the power of the Lord to not hate her.
and He has answered my prayers because i love her very much.
she also has a great sister, myra, who reads my blog. so she has that going for her also... hey myra!
one thing that i really like about meme is when she says, “everyday is a school day”. and she doesn’t mean that she wishes she could send her 4 kids off to school everyday...
but she might...
what she means that there is something to be learned every day.
today she has some new lessons to learn. she and max are making some changes with selling their house, trying to decide where God wants them to be, where the kids need to be in school, etc...
big decisions, big time chance to worry, wonder, second guess. and meredith does worry, but not as much as i would. yesterday she cried in sonny’s while we were all together eating lunch. it broke my heart to see her crying.
one thing i have always admired about her is how she seems to take things in stride, give things a chance to work out on their own. she give control to the One who has it all anyway. she is working on that today.
and if everyday is a school day, then hopefully i can learn that lesson too.
i am praying for her today, for new beginnings, for God to show her a little peek of His hope and His future for their family. for Him to make new things good things for them all. i ask that in your prayers today that you mention my sweet meme. and ask for peace that passes all understanding to be with her today...
i hope that my maxx learns this lesson from my brother, max... marry above you. i hope that he marries a girl just like meredith....
...willing to take advice from his mama.
a perfect picture of meredith...
notice that NO one else looks good in this phots. my brother, max, is correcting one of the kids, the kids are all not posing well for aunt lealea, but meredith looks STUNNING and happy and adorable... she really should have sent this one out as their family christmas card.