That One Family

My mom plays the organ in church, and I don't sit with my dad. So, for the last 6 months I sit alone for Sacrament meeting. I enjoy looking around and watching a father and mother trying with all their might to shut their kids up, or creating a barrier at each end of the bench so they can't run off. Or my personal favorite, when the kid realizes they can crawl UNDER the benches, and it takes the parents too long to see that. By that point it's too late and they're off. Then the parents are walking briskly, trying to be reverent, to catch up to them before they make it up to the pulpit.

There I sit, alone, watching all these families go through this hassle every week, and I enjoy it probably a bit too much.

Lately I've been going to another ward where my friend lives, and I always get asked to come on the good Sundays, when the Martins are in town.

I drive myself, and with the last 5 years of my mom driving me everywhere and being late to everything, I have this new obsession with being early, always.

The last Sunday I went, I sat in the very back, having a slight panic attack. Then I hear someone say something in the foyer, and I know the Martins are here. Finally, someone I know. Tracy walks in and says, "Come on, sit with us."

Of course, I felt bad because I was stealing mom's Right side, which only left her Left side, for three girls to fight over.
Testimony meeting started and on the left of me, I had Mom and Daughter whispering and laughing, to my right I had two Sisters laughing about something Elder Miller was doing from across the room.

So, there I sit, smack dab in the middle of it. It was great. I absolutely loved it.

But what topped it off, was towards the end of the meeting, when Tracy put her arm around me, just like she had done to her daughter the entire hour. I've never felt like I've belonged anywhere like I did at that moment. I'm not sure I could ever top the way I felt then. For the first time in 6 months, I didn't feel alone. I felt like I was sitting there with my family, with the people I love and care about.

There's always that person, or that family, that just means the world to you.
I've found mine.