Stories Along The Way

The genie grants you a wish. What is it?

If a genie could grant me one wish, what would it be?

I would wish for a traditional family — a mom, a dad, and children growing up together in one home.

That doesn’t mean I believe every family has to look that way. Families come in many different forms. It’s simply the life I always wished for myself.

I would have loved to have a loving husband by my side from a young age. Someone to build a life with, raise our children with, and eventually grow old with.

The greatest part of my life now is my son. He is the greatest gift life has given me, and I wouldn’t change having him for anything in this world.

But I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have that partner beside me through all the stages of life. Someone to share the responsibilities, the struggles, the accomplishments, and all the ordinary little moments in between.

I wouldn’t wish for money because we could work for it together. I wouldn’t wish for a beautiful home because we could build that together too. We could struggle together, succeed together, make mistakes together, and one day look back at everything we had built side by side.

For me, that would be worth more than anything money could buy.

I could have the biggest mansion in the world, but if I came home to an empty house every day, would it really be a home?

For me, it wouldn’t.

I’d rather have a simple house filled with love, laughter, family dinners, disagreements, celebrations, children running around, and years of memories than a mansion filled with silence.

Life didn’t turn out exactly the way I pictured it when I was young. But life did give me my son, and he became the greatest part of my life.

So if a genie stood in front of me today and offered me one wish, I wouldn’t ask for millions of dollars, a mansion, or anything material.

I would wish for the family life I always dreamed of — a husband, children, and a home we built together.

Because money can buy a house, but it can’t make it a home.

For me, home is having people to love and people who love you back.