Legacy of Strength

I wanted to share an idea today that gives me, and hopefully my daughters, great strength.  It's an interesting story how I came upon this idea. 

I had a great friend by the name of Darin Bettridge.  We became friends shortly after I divorced and have been great friends ever since.  His mother passed away and when attending her viewing I saw this beautiful collage of pictures of his mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and so on.  The framed photos went back for 4 or 5 generations.  I loved it! I told myself that I wanted to do this as a "cherish" gift for my girls for Christmas.  (The most interesting part of the story is that my friend Darin and his wife later introduced me to Darin's brother who was also at the viewing and funeral, of course.  He is now my eternal mate!)

Last year I started the hunt of finding the photos and collecting a few stories about my mom, grandmother, and back to my fourth great-grandmother.  It wasn't easy to find some of the photos and stories.  I made a frame for myself, my mother, my sister and my daughters.  I wanted a reminder for all of us of the great legacy of strength that we had as women in our family.

Here are a few examples of the process:

STEP ONE: I first went to Michael's and found frames which had the right amount of spots in the matted frame for the number of generations I wanted.  I picked seven (7) for my frame, six (6) for my mothers and eight (8) spots for my daughters.

STEP TWO: I purchased the vinyl from a vinyl cutter. I gave them the font, length and heighth of what I wanted it to say below the photos.  This is the message I wanted all of us to remember. "Legacy of Strength-Royal Daughters of God".

STEP THREE: In the front of the book, I included a family group sheet and the names and order starting with myself and working back to my fourth great-grandmother, Mary Fielding Smith.  Yes, another reason I wanted my children to know the type of strong and spiritual grandmothers they have.  It makes me want to be just a little better every day.

STEP THREE: I then started gathering stories which I later typed up with the photo of the grandmother and put the stories in acid-free sheet protectors. Their stories are ordinary in some ways and yet extraordinary examples of faith. All of the stories became testimony builders.

 I included other stories from other relatives as well as patriarchal blessings from relatives that we have passed down.

STEP FOUR: I picked out a 1" vinyl binder from an office supply store (or Walmart) to house the stories.  I found a quote and decorated the front of the cover with scrapbooking paper, ribbon and buttons.

STEP FIVE: I then added the pictures and wrapped both the frame and the book as their "cherish" gift last year.  I hope this will be one of the treasured traditions they pass on to their daughters.