Sharing Them With the World

Today was a big, big day in Sylvia and Charlie's lives -- the first day of Kindergarten! I visited each of them last night to give them a big good luck hug and a little treat to celebrate the eve of the big day. As excited as they are to start this journey called school, I keep thinking about the fact that now they must be "shared." All of a sudden Rach/Sylvain and Matt/Jenn will be living by school schedules, sports, and activities that may not always revolve around the family. Little by little, they will need mom and dad less as they make new friends and learn the ways of the world. It has to happen and it's a healthy thing to happen; many parents with challenged children would love to have kids who could "do for themselves." But I know this was such a hard time for me when Rach and Jordan were no longer just mine, and I no longer called all the shots. I had to start wielding to their schedules and take time with their homework and be sure they got to their activities/sports. Much of it was fun, don't get me wrong. But it's just that pulling away feeling that pulls at the heart.

There will no doubt be lots of times in the next 13+ years of school when they will want nothing to do at all with mom and dad and being anywhere but home sounds like a good idea. But God willing, they will all come out at the other end as beautiful, kind, caring adults who will then some day be sad when their babies start growing up. I keep saying I just want the world to be nice to them; I want everyone in the world to love them as much as I do, which I know can't happen. But I'm certain of one thing, Charlie and Sylvia are loved tremendously by a whole lot of people, not just mom/dad/brothers/sisters, but all the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. They are loved and will always have a place to go if times get tough. And if that's not enough, God loves them even more than all that, since they are God's children too.

So today was their first real day of going out into the world. I wrote on their balloons last night something I really hope they will remember every day -- Be Kind, Have Courage, Work Hard. That's what they need to do each day, and Grammy needs to pray each day that world will treat them well. God bless our precious babies as we share them with the world.