Sowards Family

I asked Clare what her family was into right now.  Her response, “Just about everything.”  I believe it!!!  This is a busy family.  Any family with six kids is bound to be busy, and when you have one leaving on a mission, two high school students, one in middle school, one elementary and one still at home, that’s busy!!!  Just the sports alone is a feat to stay on top of, along with school and church activities, family and friend time, (the latter being the most important to most teens), and don’t forget the dreaded homework.  It can get overwhelming really quickly.  That’s why I admire Clare so much for making sure they got some family pictures before Jacy left, even though their life is crazy.

Jacy left for the MTC in Mexico the next week.  She will be serving for 18 months in the Las Vegas, Nevada Mission, speaking Spanish.   It may seem like a lifetime to her mom, but I promise, she will not be gone forever and it will go fast.  But I believe she will not come home the same person.  Jacy is an incredible person with much talent and maturity already.  She is ready to serve the Lord and will be a great missionary, but she will change.  A mission is a boot camp for life.  The traits, talents and abilities she will learn on her mission would take her a years, not months, to learn without a mission.  And the great thing is, even though she will be far away, her family will see her grow.  They will feel it in her emails home and they will hear it in her phone calls.  She will be busy serving others and will receive a multitude of blessings for her and her family by doing it.

To the Sowards family, enjoy the next 18 months.  It may be hard at times but it is so worth it!!   Thank you for being willing to give her up for awhile so she can bless others for eternity.  Thank you for the example you are of a strong and close family.  You are doing more good than you know.  And as Michael J. Fox said, “Family is not an important thing, it’s everything.”  You have that figured out!!!