Who I come from

Within the past few years I have absorbed myself in researching my ancestry. I started off a couple of years ago knowing very little about either side of my family but my grandfather provided me with some information about the Stoschs. I treasure my maiden name because it's all I was for 21 1/2 years. Plus, Stosch is a blessing of a surname to have when your first name belongs to about 103 million other girls around the globe. For this very reason I vow to give my children as unique of names as possible but that's another topic, another day. So, I have decided that, with my only living grandparents on my daddy's side, that I would conduct interviews of as much as they can remember from their lives. We'll also go to as many grave sites as possible and take some pictures with them. I know, I know...that sounds weird and creepy but I want to be able to show as much as I can to my kids and grandkids. Sadly, I may be the only one in my family to ever care about any of this.

I'm not sure what has sparked such a deep desire to know my family when I can't even meet them. I hate that I can't know them but researching and digging kind of indulges and satisfies that. Related side note: I am directly related to Charlemagne (that's right, Holy Roman Emperor), Louis the Pious, and some English Henrys. As cool as that is, there are probably too many people out in the world who are descended from them so I tend to feel more love toward the people who are only 3 to 4 generations back. Over winter break I completed as much of my family tree as I could muster (sitting on the couch and looking at a computer screen without moving for 9 hours gets old quickly).

At the end of it all, I realized that knowing all of the people I directly descend from brings my soul so close to God. The only way I could be here today is because God ordained me to be. There are too many people who I descend from who may have not been born, may have died prematurely, may have never met their spouses/mates and may have conceived their children at a different time (thus resulting in different children). If any of these things had happened to ONE single person in my tree......then I would not be typing this lame blog post! To sum this up in a more organized fashion: God is Sovereign!