Glimpse of the future
Our oldest child was born 9 1/2 months after we were married. I’ve had babies and little ones in my life constantly since then. While I know it isn’t the case, I often feel like I will be in this stage forever, that I will always have a cute little body running circles around me and wiping their nose on my shirt.
I really can’t picture the day when there won’t be someone in a princess dress to carry around.
Yet every once in a while I observe one of my children and see a faint image of them twenty years from now.
As I watched my toddler pick up the hem of her white princess dress and run across the room, from behind I saw her as a bride, holding the hem of her dress to run to the man of her dreams.
As she twirled in the sunlight I got a little taste of the bittersweet feelings that will, one day, be reality.
I get so comfortable with how they are NOW that I feel like they’ll be this way forever, and then one day I realize that they’ve changed. Today I was reminded that the time will pass more quickly than I think, that I’ll wish for one more day with each of them small enough to hold in my lap to tickle and kiss and rock them. That sometime soon my arms will be empty and my shirt will be clean.
And I smile through my tears.
Hopeful Homemaker
