This is where I share with you my most favorite past time! Let me tell you why scrapbooking is so special to me.
As I’ve grown older, the value of these photos has grown immensely; they are precious reminders of days gone by. With the passing of my grandparents, parents, and younger sister over the past few decades, I have inherited their photos. And now feel a sense of urgency to organize these photos into albums with names, dates, and relationships for future generations. Which is why I also enjoy pursuing my ancestry. Mixing the two has been an amazing journey.
I am blessed with 20 grandchildren. Yes, you read correctly. The short version of the story is after being married for three years in the late 1980s and having two children, my husband and I divorced in early 1991. We both remarried and had children in our second marriages. By God’s grace we reunited in 2010 and remarried early 2011. Our blended family now consists of eight adult children from our previous marriages, his, mine, and ours. Almost all of them are married and have children of their own, giving us 20 beautiful blessings to pass on these cherished memories to.
Although there is way more to that story and could take hours to recount, it is one of the reasons I scrapbook. To tell the story of our lives, our children’s lives and to give them some idea where they came from. I did ask my parents questions but not enough and probably too late to get complete answers. So I pour over the pictures left behind to find pieces of their stories and put them all together.
I am convinced that putting our photos, memorabilia, and stories into a book for future generations provides them with a sense of belonging and gives them a view of life they have never seen before. It takes them on a journey they have a part in, even if they may not fully appreciate it when they are younger. When they are older they will get to see through your eyes how special they were to you.
To take the time to gather, to plan the layouts, to choose the colors and patterns, to write the story and accent the pages with embellishments to tie it all together, shows a kind of love that only can be expressed through crafting something with your own two hands. The pictures are the star of the pages, but the crafting it together is a labor of love.
My Paper World 