Grandma's Gone Back Home

Grandma Mary has been at our house for the last 8 days.  She attended Grandparent's Day at the twins' school.  She took Aaron bowling and for a lunchdate by himself.  She gave Caleb baths and laid with him in his bed to help him fall asleep at bedtime and bathtime.  She taught Caleb how to wrap Elmo and his stuffed Larry up in blankets and tuck them to "bed" as a game.  Andrew read to her every night.  The boys entertained her with our nightly "dancey-dance" game that we made up.  She showed the boys videos of their cousin Harvey (who lives in Delaware).  They told her ridiculous jokes that didn't make sense.  They laughed with her and provided her with many laughs.  They gave her bedtime hugs and kisses.  The twins came running to the car at school pick-up when she was in the car.  Caleb chose to have her carry him instead of me.  She taught and practiced Awana verses with the boys.

She and I made Starbucks runs in the afternoon and talked for hours.  We went shopping together--walking around the mall, visiting the play area with the boys and just talking some more..  She helped me get laundry and dishes done (is there any more practical way to show love to me at this stage of my life?).  She also gave Jon & I permission to sneak out for three movie nights and a late night dinner while she was here.

Clearly, it was a glorious week for our family.

It ended this morning when we took Grandma to the airport and she flew home.  I woke Aaron up so he could ride with us and he immediately dissolved into tears about her departure (this is no surprise).  I thought he'd quiet down when he realized we'd be seeing her in a month for Christmas, but it made the pain no less painful for him.  A month is FOREVER in a five-year-old's life.

On the way home from the airport, Aaron sang his favorite song through tears and sobs.  I still hear it echoing in my head.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won't turn back
I know you are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

Eventually, he stopped crying and now all he has is happy memories of a great week with Grandma.  Its hard when you live far apart.  You can't just stop in for a cup of coffee or a dinner.  Making it to the kids events like soccer games and Grandparent's Day doesn't usually happen.  It takes coordinating schedules, making travel arrangements, spending---basically all sorts of intentionality on all of our parts as well as time, money and energy. 

In this month of focusing on Thanksgiving, I am so grateful for these times when we are able to have a week of "normal" with Grandma.  I'm thankful for this week where we intentionally focuses our schedule on soaking up with with Grandma Mary.

The conversations over cups of coffee, the bedtime rituals, the laughter over the boys antics, reading books together--these shared moments when you spend most of your time miles apart are precious.  These are the memories that fill my heart and put smiles on my boys' faces.  These moments turn into the family stories that we tell each other in the coming weeks and year.  These are the moments that are etched into my mind as snapshots and end up in the boys' scrapbooks.  It may be cheesy, but its true.  There is no gift that I could be given that is better than the gift of time with those I love.  I plan on soaking it up as much as possible, especially as we head into what has become the most consumerism-driven and materialistic time of the year.

Thanks for visiting Grandma!  See you in a month!

Three years ago

This afternoon I was re-tucking my Caleb back into bed (he'd been up a few times) in an effort to get him to nap.  As I was laying next to him stroking his hair in an effort to calm him to sleep, I was overcome with tears.  Sometimes this sweet boy can drive me batty with his never-ending getting into things, but I cannot imagine my life without him.  That dimpled smile was one of the first things I noticed about him when he was born and that same smile melts my heart these days in about two seconds. 

Three years ago, I had just learned that I was pregnant with Caleb.  It was exciting and terrifying at the same time.  Caleb was my first pregnancy after I had experienced the loss of a miscarriage.  Because of our previous loss, that positive pregnancy test brought up a bunch of conflicting emotions.  So much that I kept the news to myself for a full THREE days before I told my husband.  Keeping any news, especially BIG news like that, to myself for three minutes, let alone three days is amazing.  I'm pretty sure that the other 3 times I discovered I was pregnant, I waited all of 3 seconds before I shouted the news to my hubs. 

During those three days, we went to a reunion party.  We had three young children at the time (4 years, 4 years and 2 years), so several people were asking if we were done or if we might have more.  Little did they (or Jon) know!

It seems kinda silly now that I kept it to myself but at the time, my heart was tentative.  I didn't know what the outcome would be and knew I wasn't in control.  I had hoped it would be good.  I had no idea how blessed our family would be to have this 4th little boy added to it. 

When I see this boy, all I can think about is how good God is!  The verse that comes to mind is
1 Samuel 1:27 "I asked the LORD to give me this boy, and he has granted my request." (New Living Translation)