A wedding

It was simple, quaint and beautiful. A small lake wedding, a grandfather doing the marrying, a girl behind the lens of her camera

and a mom with lots on her mind. 

  

I loved working along side her and I loved watching her with camera in hand as she tried for that perfect shot.

Are you tired of parenting? Do you feel as though you'll never get it right?
or live through it?

Let me encourage you to stay on the course that is set before you.

Yes, it's hard some days but if you can imagine your little ones all grown up one day and your days of parenting them gone, it will help you keep your job as mom

in prospective. I marvel at where our time went with Taylor and Tucker.
I did not blink.
I kept looking at the hands of time and knew this was all just temporal.
It still shocks you though when you realize that it's almost over.

I was with them every step of the way and yet I think I missed something because

it seems as if over night they grew into adults.

I'm glad I have no regrets. The time I get them now is a bonus sort of. She will marry a fellow and he will marry a sweet gal someday and when they do I'll be ready ( or at least I keep telling myself that)  because I have walked this road of their life with them every step of the way and I know that step will be just as beautiful.

I will not blink as I send them off to start their own family either.
I will stand beside them and support them on their journey.  

  

 There are years in parenting that you honestly believe you'll be in overdrive mode forever and the frustration mounts and you don't handle them gently. You crave free time and time away to only wish you had it all back when you grow old. When you're sitting on your front porch looking at an empty yard. When you're buying grorceries for just 2 or 3.
You will miss the times when you can sleep deep because they're all tucked in and under your roof. 

 But you trade in your already borrowed time for some useless something and then you blink and they're grown. So many parents are left wondering,

"what if I would have done something different?"
 Now, we all know that God is sovereign and nothing you do will change His plan.

But so many trade hours of their time to be away from the few hours they have with their children. 

I'm so thankful that I didn't blink. I savored every single moment with this daughter/son of mine. We shared our days in homeschooling, hours and minutes and what seems strange to the outside world was a mixing of our souls that will never be unmixed.

A monumental amount of memories that will carry me through my old age.
When I sit in my rocking chair I'll have a smile on my face because I soaked up every single part of them. I was not and am not a perfect mama...I have and have had bad days but it's the getting up after bad days remembering what my mission on this earth is and I kinda hope/pray my swings will be filled with lots of grandbabies;)

So as they venture out and start their jobs and I'm able to share in their adult
world it's a bitter sweetness.

This weekend I watched her work and realized that this arrow is sharp and the time to launch her is close.

So for now I'll enjoy my bonus time with both of them.

Enjoy your children and don't blink.