It's wonderful to have two awesome kids who have changed your life for the better. My daughter, Sarah, has continually challenged me to change and to let go of old ways. She is a fabulous mother who does things like sleep on the floor with her 4 yr old son because he has a stomach virus and is throwing up. I should have done that, but Sarah grew up to be a loving mother anyway. Sarah has helped me to learn to break out of my box and try new things, including Facebook, blogging, and trying new ways of doing church. She has values that are real and has little time at all for phoney baloney people who want to hide behind superspiritual masks. My mother has gone to heaven, but she would love the way Sarah speaks her mind, they way she writes and her obsession with punctuation and word usage! (My mother was the chairman of the English dept. at our high school...I'm sure that's a surprise.) Sarah loves and honors her handsome, Sean, whom I've nicknamed the "top son-in-law" because he is!
I'm also thankful for my son, Bill, or "B" as the family knows him. He originally had no less than 16 nicknames, all terms of endearment, but B is the one that stuck. B is the epitome of delight who carries a sense of humor which is so similar to mine that we spend our moments pulling each other's chains. He is a genius, too, like his sister and his dad and can trade puns like no one but my husband. B loves his wife, Caroline, in a way that you can tell it. He is nuts about her and her charming N. Irish accent and her family values. B loves his own "little B, his little Ben" and has become a father who plays with his son just like his Dad played with him. B has been brave through several hardships that have overcome lesser men, but I admire his grace under trial and that he keeps plowing through to stand where he believes God told him to stand. His name means "bold protector" and he's living it out.
So if you want to become my enemy, just pick on my kids. My husband and I are so proud of them that when we think of all God's blessings on our life together, they are at the top of the list. They are both in their 30's, but I've promised to pinch their cheeks when they are 40---and beyond. I still have those "mommy" type feelings when I see them and their beautiful families. I don't know what to do with those feelings anymore. Maybe the way I feel about them is similar to the way God feels about us, longing to make an easier path for them, to help them and still nurture them when I have a chance. Letting go of those feelings is impossible for me. I count them as love even though they probably sometimes think of them as a nuisance. I still love my "babies" more than life itself and would fling myself in front of a garbage truck in order to save them. I guess that's like God, too, huh?
