The One about my Crazy Family

This title has been edited so people would no longer be offended. It is a post about family. Our Little House in the Hood/Wood

I am “half” from a large Yankee Catholic Italian and “half” from a large Redneck Southern Baptist, family. I feel at home in chaos, yelling is like a lullaby of comfort and consistency. We are, in essence, the antithesis of a Hallmark movie. Growing up was wild, and I loved it.

There was the time one of my sisters threw a Nintendo at my head, or the time she threw a Dust buster at my head or the time I threw a wooden shoe at my sister’s head from a second story window.  My memories are filled with yelling, broken tables, and cousins running everywhere. I loved every second. There were fights and laughter, tears and screams. I went from 50-year-old redneck men dressed as American flags, to greased back Italian “not” mobsters. Both my grandfathers were known for their tempers. One was also known for a broken smile and teeth that always seemed to go missing. We have had our stay in mental wards, our spells of drug & alcohol abuse,  and of course our “not so” big breaks with the horses and the lottery. Our kids are kicked out of preschool, because, “it wasn’t their fault…” 

Sunday dinners more closely resemble a scene from Silver Linings playbook or Roseanne (although I do not like that show) than they resemble The Little House on the Prairie or the Walton’s.  Our sins are BIG, defying American classy “Anglo-Saxon” culture.

 

(Left my grandaddy's homemade leg turned lamp/Right me n' my cuz)

When I started truly walking with God, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with my family. Should I attempt to clean them up and take them into my new shiny Christian culture that cringes at a swear word and looks down on the rough and tumble? Or should I distance myself and pretend I also came from a family that had holidays around one table, homeschooled their kids, had natural childbirth and engaged in normal polite conversation? (I am assuming polite conversation excludes talkin about birthing, but I am not sure on that). For years I struggled with this tension. If only everyone could just change and be like me! 

It has been over a decade. Life and scripture has humbled me- a lot. You wanna read about messed up families, check out Genesis. God wrote the book on dysfunction. There are brothers killing brothers, men knocking up their servants (this happens a lot), and sisters competing for the same man. Fertility wars run amok, adultery, murder, and lies lay the framework for a family that also would not fit into shiny clean American culture. It is a story about broken, fallen, improper people who are found by a perfect sinless Savior. His beauty stands in stark contrast with the brokenness around him. I am not excusing sin, mine or anyone else’s. I am not trying to glamorize lives unyielded to the Lord, but I am saying that God is in the business of using messed up families to bless the nations. Also that I don't want to have natural childbirth, and that I do love my family.