April 26, 2013

Flying


Keira Flying
Keira said to me today “Mommy, when I grow up I’d like to still live with you and Daddy. Is that ok?”

I laughed and stroked her hair and looked lovingly at her beautiful face and said “no honey…it’s not”. Because people, at some point I’m going to require eight hours of sleep again in a stretch, can I get an amen?

At some point I’d like to pee without having to discuss all hither and heretofore of My Little Pony.

But actually…if I’m honest…(ish)…I can hardly stand how quickly my kids are growing up. What a strange place to sit – wanting nothing more than to have them healthy, happy, and growing strong and yet all the while trying to stop the clock and freeze time and remember each little moment in sweet detail.

Alas, the crux of parenting – they’re not ours. Not for long anyway. We’re just training them how to be the people they were always meant to be. We’re just “growing” them. Little flowers that push through each phase of new life under our tender and watchful care, until suddenly opening full to show the beauty that God made them into. To grow and to leave. To fly.

When I listen to the them whisper and watch them play…or stare as they run and laugh and fall together in a heap of giggles…I can’t help but feel the heavy sadness that it won’t last nearly long enough for my mamas heart, and yet filled with the joy of being chosen to watch their journey unfold. How lucky are we, I remind myself. How lucky to have front-row seats to these two glorious lives. Where but for the grace of God, we would never have known them at all. Their paths would have been vastly different all the way across the world.

But instead, somehow in the mystery of God’s design and plan – and all the way on this side of my world – here they are; part of my own story and I, a part of theirs. The crying, the laughter, the bumps and bruises, the story-time and playtime, the meals and the prayers and the kisses and hugs. The reassurances, the encouragement, the messes and the clean up.

The day to day living.

And all things My Little Pony and Avengers.

And then suddenly…the flying…

Cherish every moment. Love your babies well…

April 2, 2013

Kindergarten Round-Up

How can this be?  Friends…tell me!  You were here, right?!?  You read the posts.  He was six months old yesterday.  I swear it!  You’re my witness!

How then is it at all possible that we have received an invitation to Kindergarten Round-Up?  As in, school?  Like REAL school?  As in, blink and he’ll be a Senior in High-School kind of school?

I’m not ready for this.  (as she blows her nose into her hankie)  I mean it.  This is not exactly what I would call “easing a mother in”.  For crying out loud.  I’ve only had five measly years to prep.  {sniffle} That’s like…{cough}….nothing!  Hardly anything.  What the heck?  What, for once can we not go by dog years or something? 

Where was the memo:  “hey, you…mother over there pouring your very soul into your kids…working from sun up to sun down to make sure all is well in their little world?!  Yeah, you!  Go ahead and let those reigns go…we’ve got him from here”.  (sob….sniffle….blows nose again)  "That’s right, Mama…just pack a lunch and send him over.  We’ve got it!  See you at Graduation.“  (Wails into hands….)

{sniffle} I’m just not ready friends…how can he be five?

Don’t blink, mamas out there…

I love you, Quinty!  Don’t grow up too fast, my sweetheart.  Mama’s heart can’t take it.
Quint - Kinder