What a year 2017 has been for the Birden family! The year has brought a mixture of heartache and happiness. All of the joys and sorrows of the year kept me from my blog.

I have realized that life, for me needs to be about focusing on the positive, and trying hard not to stress about everything. I have to say that didn’t come easy. I didn’t wake up and suddenly decide this. I had to get a slap in the face first! The slap was a diagnosis that required me to change my diet drastically, receiving some treatment and take a hard look at the stress in my life. I finally said, “enough is enough”! What a sigh of relief when I made the decision I would not stress over things or people who I cannot control. Wow did that lift a weight off me! I will share more on this in a future blog because I’m sure it will help some of you who may be experiencing the same thing. Ok, I am getting off the main reason why I sat down to write today.

Our three beautiful children were married this year! First up was my daughter’s engagement. I have to admit when my daughter announced her engagement, I had a mix of emotions. I was excited, and also sad. Sad because my baby was leaving home and as you mothers know who have married children, your relationship changes. The big difference is seeing her less. So we are now ready to start planning her wedding and our two sons both get engaged within a month of each other! Crazy I know! We were in a state of shock at first as you can imagine, but so excited too!

February 18th, May 6th, and May 20th, the dates of our children’s weddings. Yikes two in May you say! I am sure you know, finding the right venue and date you want can sometimes frustrating. Our two sons weddings ended up being two weeks apart due to venue dates and family availability. Despite the dates and stresses of planning the weddings, they all turned out beautiful. We couldn’t be happier with our children’s choices of mates. Our family grew, and we are enjoying this new chapter in our lives.

Here are few photos from our children’s weddings:

LaJourdain Jr & Rikki, married May 20th, 2017

Dante & Emma, married May 6th, 2017

Camille & Blake, married February 18th, 2017

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
– Maya Angelou