There's a reason she did not already have such a picture. It's difficult to get all the members of three very busy families together at the same time. I started the picture endeavor by contacting my two sisters-in-law so that we could choose a date that would work for all three of us. We finally landed on Veterans' Day, November 12, 2012. Everyone would have the day off from school and no other activities were planned for that day. Mom and Dad would also be out of town, so Mom would be none the wiser. Perfect. Or so I thought.
I was awakened at 4 a.m. on the morning of the 12th by the sound of rain. It wasn't just a little drizzle, either. It was raining "cats and dogs," as the saying goes. It rarely ever rains that hard here and it just wouldn't let up. My sister-in-law texted me at 7 a.m. to ask if the photo session was still on. I wanted to get the picture outside in the late afternoon light. The weather being what it was, I needed to come up with an alternate plan.
The plan I decided to pursue was taking the picture at our church, the only indoor place to which I have access that has enough space to accommodate a large group. Matt's sister thought this would work, but my other sister-in-law was not so enthused with the idea. She felt the drive was too far and she didn't want to take that much time out of her day.
Thankfully, the rain let up a little after noon. Grace and I went outside to get our planned picture location ready. Upon further inspection of the area in front of the shed, we decided against it (the sun would be in kids' eyes and they would be standing in the flower beds). We looked at every other possible location in our yard and found that the only other place with no distracting background objects would be in front of our not-yet-completed play house.
The only problem was, the area was littered with construction debris. Grace, Paul and I spent a couple of hours cleaning up the area while Elizabeth baked cookies as a treat for good smilers. Grace set up her tripod, camera and tiny chairs for little people in front of the play house. The sky was still overcast, but it didn't rain anymore. My sisters-in-law arrived with kids in tow at the planned time of 4 p.m. We were on our way, or so I thought.
I had to awaken Joel, Jude and Isaac from their afternoon naps in order to get them ready for the picture. Joel was insistent that he wear his Swedish Army hat, along with his usual mustache. The problem--he looked like Hitler. I told him Grandma knew him as her little cowboy and he could wear his cowboy hat, but not the army hat. Then I continued to get the other two boys ready and moved outside to organize the crowd.
Jessica, my sister-in-law with ten kids, announced that some pipes at her house had broken, she had water soaked carpets and her husband was in bed because he had thrown out his back. "Let's make this quick," she said. We did. I think we got about twenty pictures and we were done in about ten minutes. Jessica and her kids left as quickly as they had arrived.
Grace and I decided to load the pictures onto the computer right away. We found one we thought would work. Everyone was looking at the camera at least. Then I decided to count heads. Eighteen. I counted again. Still eighteen. And again. Eighteen. Who was missing? It must be one of the ten, right? Nope. Then Grace and I both said it at the same time, "Joel!"
Joel, unhappy with my decision about his hat, had been hiding upstairs in the school room the entire time. Needless to say, I was a bit angry. Grace and I talked about photo shopping Joel into the picture, but we just couldn't see how that would work very well. We decided we needed to take the picture again.
Thankfully, Matt's sister and her kids were still at our house, I just needed to beg my other sister-in-law to have mercy one me and come back. When I called her, she was at the rental store getting fans to dry out her carpets. It was getting darker by the minute so I begged her "please hurry."
My brother-in-law ended up dragging his pain-wracked body out of bed and driving the kids back to our house. We got the picture set up and were done in less than ten minutes. The second picture taking session was actually a blessing, because Grace and I didn't like the angle of the original shots and we were able to change that the second time around.
The next day, a friend of mine called and inquired about how the photo session had gone. I told her the whole story and she laughed. I said, "I'm sure this will be funny someday, but it's not now."
So my mother-in-law got the picture she wanted for Christmas. I also made copies for myself and my two sisters-in-law, so it turned out to be a four fold gift. And I can laugh about the whole thing now.
(I was also able to share the picture with the ladies in my Bible study. One of the gals had commented that she wasn't so sure about the whole large family thing. "Look," I said, "All of the these children are being raised to love the Lord Jesus. By God's grace, these kids will impact the world for good." What an awesome legacy. To God by the glory.)
I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 89:1
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