This page is for MOC9, challenge #2, Why I Scrap!
It is also a testament to the best MOC practice of making sure the kit you are scrapping with is STILL IN THE STORE!! I got to the end of it and found out that the kit I used was not in the store, and I had to delete everything but the words to start over with a kit that is in the store!!
So, THIS is the lilypad collab After The Rain. And, it has 581 words.
The journaling reads:
I scrap because I am going to die someday. I feel like that is such a morbid reason to do anything, but it's the fact of the matter. One day, when I was 29, far too young to experience such a thing, my mother breathed her last breath. And, while I know I had more time with her than many people get to have with their mothers, it just wasn't enough. I have so many questions, and so many stories of my childhood that I can't quite remember everything that happened. There are big memories and small ones that are lost forever because I can't ask her.
I think scrapbooking gives my kids a rare look into how I think, how I saw the events of their lives, how I see the events of my own life, and more than anything else how much I love them! I scrap our highs and our lows, I sometimes sob while I document. I pour a piece of myself into my pages, not all of them, but enough of them. Sometimes, my pages are mundane, filled with just the facts of what happened or whatever else. But, other times, my pages feel like they have a little bit of my soul in them. I want to leave that behind for my kids so that they will never have to rely on their memories of how much I loved them, they will have all the pages I made for them to remind them.
And, maybe someday, in the very distant future, relatives of mine will find these pages and see a look into our lives and personalities. They'll see that my daughter was a singer, who did plays, graduated college, got married, and had a beautiful family. And, they'll see that she was campy and funny and loved her sister and her puppy. They'll see that my son was smart and funny, and that he was autistic but he (and I) didn't let that stop him from doing anything he wanted to do. They'll see that he was brave- the kind of 7 year old who strapped in to a parasailing rig and flew next to his Mom. And, they'll see by the look on his face that he absolutely hated it! As a bonus, they will see the pride in my face that he went and that he made it through.
Anyone who comes across the pages I've made will find gift pages I have made for friends, and loved ones. Those pages are tributes to who each of those special people are in my lives. They'll find the page about my grandmother that speaks of her faithfulness and impact on the world around her. They'll see the letter I wrote to my grandfather thanking him for the consistency he brought into my life, the example that he set, and the cultural things he exposed me to. They'll find family photos documenting lovebugs who came to stay with us while their families were struggling. They'll probably wonder who all those kids are and why each of them was only in my photos for a season. And, maybe (I don't know for sure at this point), they will see a kiddo or kiddos who came into our family and stayed for the rest of their lifetimes. They'll know we were a family who loved hard and often!
So, even though it is morbid, I scrap because I am going to die one day... And, it's pretty!
