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Meet Chayden: Proof That In Family You Need Savoury To Recognize the Sweet.

I don’t eat a lot of deserts, but cinnamon buns just happen to be my weakness – especially when they have cream cheese icing!  I hope you enjoy my version of a timeless classic with my favourite recipe.

I am thankful for the sweet things in life. 

I would love it if life was always sweet, nothing but pleasant, wonderful, happy things.  But as you and I know, that’s not the way it goes.

Most often the roads we walk are full of challenges yet graced with wonderful, sweet moments that fuel our hearts and help us to keep going.

As the eternal optimist in our home, I prefer to focus on those moments. 

So for this next series of blog posts I thought I would pull back the curtain on the Young’s family a bit more and share some sweet things that have come out of having lots of kids! 

Each of my children adds to the unique dynamic in our home. Truth is, none of them are who I expected… but how can you possibly know what to expect when you become a parent?

Chayden Youngs

To start, I want you to meet our oldest son Chayden.

Chayden is 26 years old and I was only 18 when he was born. 

As a first time and single mom life was REALLY different for me back then. Unfortunately, I had a ton of hard circumstances I had to navigate because of choices I made that were far from good ones. 

Back then, I never thought twice about how wonderful parenthood would be, in fact it being a Mom was a huge part of what I aspired to. I honestly thought that life would be incredible and complete just by having my little man. 

Well... real-life was a different story. 

Chayden was a very strong willed, difficult child.  That, coupled with my complete physical and emotional exhaustion of doing it all alone and working full-time to support us when he turned 2, resulted in minimal discipline. 

He was… hmmm, I don’t know how else to say it…

Crazy.

You know the one. That no-holds-barred out of control child you see with a Mom who just can’t get it all together enough to reign him in!

Yes. I was that mom, and he was that child!

When I met my husband Scott (Chayden was 3 ½) and we married a year later, I was amazed he was willing to take us on as a challenge. Love has a funny way of blinding us sometimes, doesn’t it?

Scott & Chayden

Thank God it did for Scott!

It took YEARS working together. Learning how to parent. Learning how NOT to parent. Deciding on homeschooling and developing tons of patience to work things through. 

However, if I am honest, we didn’t have a hot clue. 

Thank God that first-borns often seem to be graced with tenacity and strength. That “strong willed” crazy little man was perfectly built to survive our parental learning curve. 

One of my funniest memories of all this as we remember Chayden as a kid was in kindergarten.  You know those cute little “report cards” the teacher prepares for each kid where they list a couple positive attributes of your child?

Well I can only imagine the struggle the teacher had with what to write! What did she end up with?

“Determined” and “resourceful”. 

That says it all I think.

Chayden helped us develop and grow as parents. It was a rough road, but as we have grown as a Mom and Dad and had 6 other kids he is quick to share with his younger siblings that it is a good thing for them that we aren't the same parents he had to train when he was kid…lol. 

So as I reflect on the sweet moments of life when it comes to my children, the lesson I see is, sometimes the reward is a long time coming. 

Chayden & Autumn

Today, we are so proud of Chayden!  What an amazing man he has grown to be.  If we were writing his report card today it wouldn’t be a struggle to list the positives.

He is one of the most loyal, hard-working and charismatic 26 year-olds I know. He is likeable, approachable and has the amazing ability to relate to a wide array of people of different ages and backgrounds.

Where Chayden’s behaviour as a child used to make people want to run far, far away… lol, today, his personality draws people in like a magnet.

The reality is if the plates of our lives didn’t contain savoury items, it would be far harder to  recognize and appreciate the sweet ones.

So If these days are more savoury than you’d like them to be, take heart.

Sometimes the sweet things take a little longer to make.