This Glorious Adventure

It was a beautiful evening. The smoke that was covering our valley created such gorgeous lighting as the sun set behind the hills.  J and I sat on the porch, sipping our tea, as we watched our kids laughing and playing in the yard.  I thought about how life is changing, how kids grow up, and how it can hit you all of a sudden when you least expect it.

A few days before, our oldest daughter (she’s 7) had come up to me and said “mom, I need to ask you something” and I was thrown off guard by what came out of her mouth next. “Can you buy me a phone? I need my own phone, or an iPad, all my friends have their own iPads!” my jaw dropped, I looked over at J, who was sitting beside me, and saw a reflection of my expression on his face, and we just shook our heads and couldn’t help but laugh. On one hand it was hilarious, because she had no idea what she was asking, but at the same time, it was sobering, in a way I didn’t, and still don’t, have words to explain. We laughed and gently explained to her why she most definitely would not be getting a phone or an iPad, and as she walked away we shook our heads and said “wow. If we’re getting questions like this at 7, what is 17 going to be like?!”

Not 3 days later, she came to me with yet another question that made me realize yet again that our little girl is growing up. “Mom” she says, “can we go out somewhere today? Like maybe to town, or to the mall …” she had never asked about going shopping before, I felt like suddenly I had a 7 year old teenager. I said “sure, let’s go to town.” We all got into the truck, and I called J and told him what we were up to, and suddenly Dani Joy (who’s 6) pipes up from the back seat “Daddy, we’re going to the mall, can I get my ears pierced?!” All I could do was laugh. My little girls apparently aren’t so little anymore. J told her she could if I wanted to take her, and as I didn’t have any reason not to, off we went.

I ended up getting little Suzy Patience’s (she’s just over 2 ½) ears done as well, since as soon as she realized what was happening she of course wanted to get hers done. It was a bittersweet moment. Sometimes something so little can seem so big.  Littles growing up, reaching small but special milestones in their lives makes for some pretty crazy mixed emotions.

All this I was pondering that evening on the porch. The beauty before my eyes, smoky sunsets, laughter bubbling from littles, time, in that moment, standing still.

Until next time,

~L.