legacy

This past weekend, we celebrated my Grandma's 80th birthday. To honor this milestone, I helped put a photo book together for her filled with pictures of her with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Everyone supplied me with photos, and I stayed up late for about a week straight putting it together (while thinking, why did I volunteer for this?! :) ) The photo below that my brother Kyle makes me glad I put in those late book-making sessions:
My grandparents were born in Shanghai, China in the 1920's. They left China in 1949 so my Grandpa could attend seminary in the US and soon after the communists took over China and they were unable to return to their homeland until the late 1970's. My Grandma had four kids in five years while in the States and then left for Taiwan where my grandparents were missionaries with the Christian Reformed Church. In 1974, my Grandpa began broadcasting the Gospel (via radio) into mainland China. They eventually returned to the States, and my Grandpa pastored a Chinese speaking church in Chicago until he passed in 1988.

My Grandma's legacy is not only the lives she touched with my Grandpa as missionaries, but it's also all of us. In addition to her four children and spouses, she also has 11 grandchildren (7 of us are married), and 10 great-grandchildren (with 3 more on the way!)

Happy Birthday, Grandma! We love you!