My little Holland, You are going to kindergarten tomorrow. When we had to decide if we wanted to add to our family of four, the answer for me was always yes. I knew that you were out there, and I just had to bring you into our lives. I will never say you made it easier, but I will always say you made it better. You were the crescendo to the twilight of my years parenting young children. Your childhood has been a gift to me as a mother. You let me experience it all over again- birth, nursing, exhaustion, frustration, joy, laughter and wonder. You are so funny (your faces, your expressions, the way you dance). You are so sweet. (Your tender heart, the way you crave touch and caresses, the way you pull my hair and tell me you love me, like you did just today). I haven’t wished away your childhood. I get it now. I see how fast it goes. The thumb sucking, asking for help to do things you could do b...
We left the dishes on the table in a rush to go into the fading light. I grabbed a rake and eagerly went after the dull and the dead, seeking green signs of life that I knew would be coming up by now. Two weeks into seclusion, more talk of sickness and death every hour. To see Spring coming right on time seems like a miracle; both a welcome relief and an annoyance. This isn’t normal. This isn’t good. This is not right- to miss out on life, to turn away from the ones we love. Exposing a new beginning is a reminder that life is going to go on, even when it isn't the same. And I just want it to be the same. Tonight, as I gardened, I heard the kids start a game of freeze tag. Hearing them laugh together made me smile. And then, “Mom, do you want to play with us?” my 15 year old son asked. I don’t need to go into too much detail except to say that I don’t think my son has asked me to play with him in a very long time. I believe those words were la...
Tomorrow I send my first born to kindergarten. He is so excited. So ready. He is 6 years old after all; there is no more putting this off. It is time for him to move on to life's next adventure. How is it possible that this time has come? How can he be so big, when my arms so clearly remember holding him as a newborn, a toddler, a chubby little boy? Just tonight as I held him, his tired hands found and tugged on my hair, just as they have done ever since I nursed him. He is not little anymore. He is tall; more muscle than pudge, and so curious about being grown up. What will this next chapter hold for him? How much joy, and how much pain? Will he make good friends? Will he get his feelings hurt? Will he be kind and remember the Golden Rule? How much of his innocence and passion will get trampled on? Will he still love me best? Will he still want me to hold him close and to run my fingers through his hair and up and down his back? Will he still pull on my hair when h...
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