Wendy
Life on the
Lake….with “The Griffin Adventures”
As I write
my first article, I have to reflect on our humble beginnings and our chance to
start over and raise our own children.
We had adopted three children from Guatemala when they were 15, 22 and
34 months old and moved to Guntersville from Lewisburg, TN a little over three
years ago. They are all 10 years old now.
My parents
had bought us a lot at Mountain Lake Resorts on the lake to come and visit Lake
Guntersville and bring our camper. Like
many families we worked all the time.
There was no time to rest and enjoy our children, much less use the
camper. We were just trying to manage a house,
a business and sneak a little family time in now and then. We made the big decision to sell our business
and home at a loss and move to our camper with a chance to do it right this
time.
With that
said, have you ever tried to live in 200 square feet with three children and a
service dog? We will never forget that
summer. The summers seem to just keep
getting better and better as our children grow older but the first one will be
remembered as the one that changed us forever.
We had a harder time starting over than anticipated because my husband
couldn’t find work. He was either over
qualified or under qualified. If there
would have been old fashioned interviews instead of online applications, they
would have seen the great man he is and couldn’t have snatched him up fast
enough. We have since opened our own
business named Curls and Pearls. We
created a place where our children could come to work with us. Bubba makes Lucky Buck Jewelry in the back
and I cut hair up front. He is an artist
and it shows in his jewelry.
The
opportunity that moving to the lake gave us is immeasurable. We have grown as parents, citizens and so
much more. I think it has been a time to
reflect on how we want to be remembered and were we the hands and feet of
Jesus. We volunteer for Blessings in a
Backpack and currently we are feeding almost 1000 children each week during the
school year. That is a program that
gives children food over the weekend that might not otherwise eat until they
get back to school. We would have never
had time for volunteering in our old lifestyle.
For me this journey has been about being a wife, mother, daughter,
sister and friend. I had been so caught
up in being a successful business owner.
There were
very humble beginnings here at the lake.
We have had our share of egg sandwiches and even accidentally had butter
sandwiches on one occasion. Our family
has less than it has ever had, but more than we will ever need. We have been reminded more than once that all
you need is “just enough”. We often play
the alphabet game at the dinner table while feeding extra kids in the
neighborhood, load up in the van to go on a Sunday drive admiring the beauty
here and accept any opportunity to make a difference in someone else’s life.
There is so
much beauty here in Marshall County that some of the residents even take for
granted. My prayer is that we never take
time or the beauty of our surroundings for granted. We are never guaranteed tomorrow. Life is short and it is up to us to make a
difference in the lives of others even if it is one person at a time.
We could
have never planned a better life for our children than this move gave
them. What a blessing for us and
them. We enjoyed that first summer so
much that every year we move to our camper over the summer. It is filled with bike riding, swimming, basketball,
fishing, game room activities, putt putt golf, ice cream and so much more. Most children pay to go to summer camp, we
live in one. The benefit of a campground
is that you don’t care where the other campers are from, who their parents are,
what they drive, where they live, what they do for a living because you already
know you have something in common, camping.
We have a
special needs son Brody and he likes to watch the cars, golf carts and bicycles
go by. He is safe there and we have let
the other two children, Ian and Atlee have a little more freedom this year and
ride their bike to get pizza or ice cream by their selves. Can you remember when your mom let you do
that? We enjoy seeing the turtles and chipmunks as
we see an occasional eagle fly overhead.
We have so much fun making memories with our children. There are so many firsts with our adventures
that we like to affectionately call them, “The Griffin Adventures”. We have a family blog www.whosbrody.blogspot.com and you can read more about us there.
Wendy
Griffin
June 26,
2013
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