HEART ROOM

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At this point in my life, fewer and fewer things surprise me.  I've seen a lot.  Not everything, but a lot.  Life has a way of repeating itself.  New packaging.  Same old stuff.  But, every now and then something catches me off guard.  A WOW moment.

How big is your heart?  I'm not shocked that there's room in there for plenty of love for my wife.  Duh!  I picked her.  Not shocked that there's room for all my kids...all four of them.  I suppose if there were 8 of them, the same would be the case.  Then there's the grandchildren.  There's four of them.  Two more are on the way.  Who knows how many are still to come?  But, amazingly (or not) there's plenty of room in my heart for all of them, no matter how many that turns out to be.  They're all my favorites (so far).

Picked my wife (or she picked me...not sure).  All those kids and grandkids have a little bit of me in them.  Suppose that helps to love someone...if they have your genes.  But, what about those that don't have your genes...that you didn't pick...that didn't pick you...that aren't little and cute?  That's right..."in-laws".  You didn't pick them.  Nobody even asked you.  You just got stuck with them.  Showed up at a wedding one day and , WHAM!, you've got a new kid...kinda.  Well, in my case, I've decided there's no "kinda" to it.  No "in-laws".  Just more daughters.  And the amazing part for me is that there's plenty of room in my heart for them.  They're mine.  Just like the other four.  Now there's 7 Allen kids.  No hyphens.  No second tier.  Just a little more room in my heart.  I guess that was somewhat of a surprise for me.  Something I hadn't anticipated.  A surprise.  Who knew?

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