Remember when it was all the craze to say a phrase, then follow it with NOT!  Well...it wasn't a statement allowed at our house. I didn't let the kids say things that would cause people to shut down communication. They weren't allowed to say, DUH, or DOH, or Made ya Look, or NOT! I was a stickler about this. One of my main priorities was that I wanted chldren who loved each other, not children who felt like their siblings were their rivals.

The fruit of this practice became so evident when the children no longer had a dad. The kids bonded together in a greater way than I ever could have imagined. They sacrificed for one another. They poured out love to each other.

Now, I'm not saying my children are perfect and that they don't ever get irritated with each other, or that older brothers don't antogonize younger sisters. But what I am saying is that if we are purposeful in how we want our children to behave, we can help shape their futures.

On the way home from church today, Erica said, "Isn't it neat that we are nice kids? Don't you like that we love each other, and that we don't fight very much, and that we're hard workers, and we love to do our school work, and that we're all cute." ;-)

Other kids started chiming in with things like, "we do our joys without complaining" - another kid said, "We do?" We all laughed.

"Erica?" I questioned, "Are you saying that I am the luckiest mom in the world because I have the best kids on the planet?"  She said yes.

Suddenly I was overcome with an emotion that is almost undescrible, it's an emotion full of tears, but filled with comfort, and love all at the same time. And there was an exceeding feeling of great joy. My thoughts began to think about how some people could say that my kids are "broken" - even their own dad often tells me that they will never be able to have what they need because they are now in a broken home.  Well to that, I say NOT!!!

A broken family isn't a family with only one parent. A broken family, is a family where the people who live there aren't connected. I'm happy to say that the Camp family is NOT a broken family! 

Ta-Dah Mom!