Monday, March 24, 2008

And Life Goes On

Well, yesterday was Easter and my husband's birthday. Poor Kenny. This was probably the crummiest birthday ever for him. Within the last month we've lost a young girl who was my daughter's best friend and was truly like a member of the family to us, and 2 weeks ago, we lost a friend who was like a brother to us. But 30 years ago today I gave him a GREAT present. He already had a little girl to love and now I'd given him his boy!

And now... it's the 30th birthday of my youngest child, Dale. This is a big year for him. Next month he'll be getting married, and within the next year, it's quite likely he'll have a child of his own.

How did we get this old? Seems like just the other day I was in the hospital with this little bundle of baby boy. Two days after his birth I was holding him and crying... It was Easter, and I was missing his 3-year old sister, Rachel, and feeling very left out. She was being visited by the Easter Bunny without her Mommy! That evening, her Daddy brought her in to visit her new brother for the first time. She was all dressed up in her little yellow Easter dress and was so excited about her basket, and her candy eggs... and to top it all off... there he was! Her new little brother.

She told me that I should go home with them. "You don't need to stay here... you come home NOW with mine-Dale". When they left, I sat there hugging my little boy and wept for a couple of hours... feeling guilty about not being there for my daughter.

Back then, they would come around and collect the babies and bring them back to the nursery for the night. Before they took him, I decided to change his diaper and he peed all over me, immediately pulling me out of this sad funk I was in and giving me a chance to laugh.

I guess we're pretty lucky. In spite of the sadness in our lives, then and now, our kids can always give us something to lift our spirits. Dale dragged me out of that deep funk of self-pity back then, and Rachel has given us two little grandchildren to keep us laughing through the sad times now. Just sitting down to chat with either of those two little cherubs is enough to brighten the worst day.

Yup... life does go on.

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