It is all in the story….

I am so grateful for the power of story. I have been diligent over the years at learning, understanding and embracing my story. One of my favorite realities of everyones story is how other stories intersect and bring rich experiences.

And I now see that in my family story as well. We are about to experience the best of all of that. My parents have a story and both of their stories started way before they fell in love. As a family, we are traveling to the places each of their stories began. We will visit Rotterdam, Netherlands and  Wijnjewoude, Friesland, Netherlands. We will listen to stories, we will experience a small sense of what initially shaped them to be the people they are. And we will recognize that the first 10 – 12 years of their lives are significant and there is so much more that has shaped them as well. I would guess we will hear stories of life in the Netherlands and beyond. We will hear stories of family members and relationships and experiences and Faith.

I am grateful for their stories of immigration and how through their sharing over the years, that has also become part of our story. It is delightful to hear, through my nieces and nephews, how they relate to being grandchildren of those who immigrated and how they also embrace that as their story. Through this trip we will  experience so much together which will allow for a greater understanding of all that has and continues to shape the Kuperus/Borgdorff bunch we are.

So as we board planes and travel over the coming weeks, I will stand in awe of how God invites us to understand His place in our stories. His invitation is kind and His presence is real. I am grateful for my story and how it is interwoven with both struggle and hardship and amazing abundance and blessing. As a family we will deeply miss Len, my oldest brother who died in December of 2012. He would have loved this trip. And we will celebrate the way we continue to carry his story  with us into everyday living.

Thank you Dad and Mom for being story tellers to each of us. It will be an exciting chapter.

Author: trishborgdorff

I am on a life long journey to live with integrity, honesty, kindness and full of grace. View all posts by trishborgdorff