Best Donor Ever

(Please forgive Spelling Errors, the spell check is....not working, and my teacher hat is missing)

Over the next few days (maybe weeks) I will be writing about my expieriences with family and traditons that keep me alive, many come just like this....some are mine, many are what my family has shared with me. Thanks for sharing stories, and always welcoming me home, even from afar.


Ok, everyone has heard me talk about my awesome grandparents, the Holtons, if you have known me for more than a few hours. A little background, they have been married over 60 years, 6 children, over 20 grandchildren, nearing 15 great grandchildren (correct me if my count is off family), and we are close, we love eachother, we have meaningful relationships. Seriously folks, we sing together, roast marshmellows in the back yard, hang out 3 and 4 generations in a den watching football or in this case a show about sperm donors. This brings me to the following exerpt my sweet Aunt Nadia sent me about her most recent visit to Holton Haven.....The family roles in the parenthesis are mine.....just so you can follow.....these are my aunts and there kids (the best cousins in the universe)

I just got back from the Holton Haven Sunday.Peter(Nadias's son) and I went over so he could take a real estate class he needed...! It was so much fun. Last Friday night Gus, (cousin)Carol(aunt) ,Marnie (aunt), and Allie(youngest cousin),me(nadia),Mom and Dad and Peter too.... were all together. overnight! And cousin Jerry was there for a visit. I know Mom and Dad get pooped....but HERE is a funny for you. We were all sitting around watching an Oprah show of all things. (Don't ask me why ! )It was about kids grown from a sperm donor, now adults.Some didn't know about it until they were older some always knew, but most of them had a need/desire to know who the sperm donor, their father, was for various reasons. Anyway we sat around and discussed the issue during commercials. Toward the end ,at a bit after midnight, Dad gets up and says," Well I am heading up to bed." He had been sitting next to Mom on the couch as I was sitting in his chair. As he leaves the room he turns and says
"Aren't you all glad you got a good sperm donor?!" We were first shocked a bit and then laughed our heads off!! Dad is the best "sperm donor" I know of!!! Thought you would like to hear about that one!


Folks this is my family, this is not an odd happening when we get together, talking, laughing (usually at ourselves or the aunts that raised us).....If you knew, only knew, the diversity of this group sitting in the sunken den at my grandparents that night, old (mature), young, middle age, grandchildren, grandparents, children, cousins, straight, gay, married, unmarried....all HAPPY and well loved, accepted, wanted, longed for,needed, we all have a place. When we walk into that home we are welcomed, warmly, we refuel, find hope, laugh and cry. We have screamed, we have had moments (many) of insecurity and found security there, in that space. From vinyl table cloths on the floor to keep our wet butts just run out of the pool from ruining the floor, to adults with our on childrne sitting on the couches and recliners, always with a little one rocking in our grandpa's rocker (he had when he was a kid over 75 years ago), one sitting in Grandpa's lap is not unusual, or at Grandma's feet on the ottoman, listening intently. We find hope, healing, history, the strength to move through our seasons. I miss them, I cry often, homesick for the relationship and warmth I find there. But alas, my Aunt Nadia writes me and tells me about a story like this, and I am right there, finding hope.....that yes I have the best donor God could have given me in every since of the word. Thanks Grandpa for the legacy.