Wheat harvest is rapidly approaching and I often get sentimental this time of year. There’s something magical about it. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the rush of adrenaline when equipment starts heading to the fields. I love the way the wheat dust settles in with the sunset, the roar of the grain elevator heard from a distance and the lights of the combine turning on like lighthouses on the shore. It’s a fast-paced, busy, non-stop ride that we somehow look forward to with both excitement and apprehension.

I was not a farm kid. We had a small head of cattle when I was growing up, but it was more of a hobby for my dad than it was anything else. I grew up in a farming community, but I didn’t know anything about farming. My husband, however, was born and raised on a farm. He started driving equipment when he was a young kid and pretty much always knew he wanted to come back home and spend his life doing what his dad did.

I will admit that the farm life did not exactly appeal to me at first. I was convinced that I was a city girl so moving back to a farm wasn’t exactly what 18-year-old me envisioned for myself. Then I met my husband and of course it didn’t matter to me where we were. I knew he was passionate about farming and was proud of the long line of farmers in his family. I didn’t know the first thing about being a farm wife, the long hours my husband would spend working, or the lifestyle, but I was ready to learn.

Now that we have three sons, I cannot picture us being any other type of family than a farm family. My boys will get to spend long, hot days doing what they love with their dad, grandma, grandpa and uncle. They get to help clean out equipment, feed cattle, fetch tools and ride along. They get dirty, sweaty, hot and end up with farmer’s tans on their little necks and arms. I pray for them that they will learn the value of hard work, patience and especially faith. Before I know it, my boys will be 10-years-old and learning to drive the grain cart just like their daddy did.

Being a farm wife has taught me so many valuable lessons, but most of all it makes me appreciate family more than ever. Just as harvest runs more smoothly when all the pieces are working together, so do we. As with any family, there are disagreements, highs and lows, good times and bad, but through it all we remain a family. And that is the greatest gift we could ever give our kids.