My family - My story


when faced with this task I stopped and thought deeply about what is important to me and how I would rank these things.
I would take a photo album with photos of my family, a stone my middle son gave me and my wedding band.
It real tugged at my heart to think about if this was a real scenario.  For many people in the world this is a real experience.
When asked about my sentimental items that I chose to take along with me I would explain in this way.  The small photo album is a reminder of happier times and important for me to have my children see photos of their extended family. I live abroad and separated from all my family so this is something that is more real to me. I make sure to have a lot of photos visible and accessible to my boys so that memories can stay fresh and real for them.  Children will eventually forget things and events that happened when they were younger and hopefully by keep a photo album I can try to keep the memories alive. 
The little stone that I would take is something that my middle son, Jayden, has been doing as long as I can remember - he would collect little stones and put in them in my bag. Stones for luck and stones for love. They are special to me and I always have one with me.
My wedding band is very special to me.  Not only is it the band that my husband I used to exchange vows and make our promises but it was my late Grandmothers wedding band.  My Grandmother was and remains a huge part of my life. She was more of a mother to me and I carry her in my heart and think of her often.
When I arrive at the destination and I am told that I can only keep one thing of importance I am of course torn and disappointed.  However after what my family has been through and the fact that I have my boys and husband with safely with me I come to the conclusion that the memories and sentimental value of the belongings I can keep in my heart without having them.
With a heavy heart I hand in my wedding band and a small stone.  I know that I have my Grandmother in my heart and watching over me and this reassures me.  I have my little boy holding my hand and he has already shoved 3 foreign stones into my back pocket of my jeans.  I am relieved that I can hand onto the small photo album I have and see the faces and memories I hold so dear.
I am relieved that we are safe and that we are together.
In my personal journey I have lived in 7 different countries.  When living in rural Indonesia things that were important to me were all the different appliances to make food we missed from home, sausage, yogurt, dried fruit and minced meat.  I noticed that I didn't choose anything with religious connections and although I am a Christian and am God fearing I did not feel the need to choose an icon.  I think I realize more than ever that I can survive anything and do not need any material things as long as I have my husband and children with me, the dearest things in my life.  Being a mother is number 1 for me and I need to protect and guard my children.
When I left Indonesia we could not take all our belongings, we had to choose some, nothing to the extent of this exercise but also challenging.  From that experience I realized that one does not need nearly half of what one owns.