Favorites Friday

Over at Politics for Moms, my friend Natalie has a regular Friday feature, called Freedom Friday. Today's feature is a picture of our kids, celebrating the freedom that we have to raise our kids to be kids. To allow our kids to become whomever God calls them to be. I've been thinking about it a lot, like in Wednesday's post on that great Chinese proverb. My favorites today are in honor of the freedoms we enjoy, as a family and as a nation.

Favorite Freedoms of The Gang:

• The freedom to worship. We are unabashedly a Christian family. We worship weekly with our local church family. We gather regularly with other believers to pray, to study the Word, and to share our Christian journey. We do this without fear of reprisals at work, or from our local governmental officials.
• The freedom to grow our family. As a pre-adopting mom of a little girl from China, this is especially important to me. We have the freedom to have as many or as few children as we desire or as the Lord gives us. We are free to add these blessings to our live through birth or adoption. We even receive benefits and breaks from our government in recognition of the effort and expense that children incur.
• The freedom to travel. With family spread out all over the East Coast, we are free travel to see them and connect in ways that are unique to our family group. We can travel to Big Boppa's & Grandma's "cabin" to fish and swim. We can travel to Tiny Boppa's and Grandma's to hike and relax in the Shenandoah Mountains.
• The freedom for the kids become ANYTHING they want to become. I love that in this nation, my kids can be doctors, lawyers, pastors, teachers, electricians, or cowboys. Even my girls. I love that they can explore all kinds of career options, that they can study lots of things on that journey. And in this stage of life, I especially love that they can read lots and lots of different kinds of books that will open their eyes to the many ways they can serve the Lord and His church as they grow.
• The freedom to celebrate our heritage. March is a fun month to me. I get to make a big deal of my Irish heritage. I pull out lots of Irish music, make Irish meals (U.S.-Irish traditions & Irish-from-Ireland ones alike, Li'l Bro!), and fly my shamrock flags. But I also get to celebrate, at any given moment, the pride I feel in being Italian, in my Christian heritage, and in being an "O'&%(&" or a "W*^)@%^" (No, I'm not swearing! These last names are disguised to protect the innocent!). Additionally, I love that The Boss and I get to infuse our own flair for what it means to be part of The Gang. We get to make our team's rules and form our team identity!

So, here's my pic of The Gang, in honor of Freedom Friday. And this is my take on my Favorite things about being FREE! What about you? What do you value about your freedom?

(First photo with the digital camera)