The shield per fess² argent and sable³ on a fess⁴ gules;⁵ in chief⁶ seven bendy sinister⁷ purpur,⁸ and in fess⁹ a saltire¹⁰ or,¹¹ and in base¹² a lion's head armed¹³ and erased¹⁴ of the last¹⁵.

In heraldry, there's a technical half English/half French that developed so that experts could reasonably exchange the "pictures" with words. The previous verbiage describes our crest.

There're a few sentences in the Good Book that read, "every man by his own standard¹⁶..." It might be reading too much into it to assume each family should have their own heraldry, but then, perhaps not. Friends that pointed it out to us take it as a commandment, and it sure makes travel through international airports with a brood of little ones a wee bit easier... "Have you seen the little girl with the shirt that looks like this one?!?!"

As to the symbolism, start at the bottom. We are born in sin and God is a roaring lion, expecting redemption or destruction. Black is often the color of darkness and evil, gold is divine.

In the middle, the only hope of redemption is the blood and the cross. Our promotion to the top comes only via Him. If we accept the promotion, we are washed clean -- white -- and adopted as royalty -- purple. There are seven stripes to symbolize the seven children of our little segment of humanity.

2Divided horizontally.	10A diagonal cross.
3Silver (white) above black.	11Gold.
4In the middle.	12In the bottom section.
5Red.	13Teeth showing.
6In the top section.	14Heads in heraldry normally come with shoulders. "Erased" means shoulders missing.
7Diagonal stripes with the top to the right.	15The "last," i.e. the most recent color mentioned, gold.
8Purple.	16Numbers i.52 and ii.2.
9In the middle section.