Take in life’s little blessings

I was living in North Carolina, beginning to feel the pull toward home nearly every day.

I remember my Dad’s phone call like it was yesterday, delivering happy news.

“But, wait. Are you sitting down?” he asked. “Your sister had twin girls!”

I threw some things together and jumped in my car. It was Memorial Day weekend, so I could do it if I drove with determination.

It was so wonderful to be with family during such a sweet time, and in many ways, it changed the path of my life.

Those twin baby girls are now 39. This realization is a reminder just how fast it all goes, and we need to savor life as it unfolds.

Days become years, birthdays celebrated, and none of us know how many we will be given.

Blessings

This past month, we received the happy news that our son and his wife are going to have their first baby, due to arrive Dec. 26.

Our daughter and her husband are expecting their second, with a due date of Dec. 27.

Blessings come our way over the course of a life, taking many forms.

Some arrive in ribbons and bows, but the most miraculous gift of all come into our arms swaddled in blue or pink.

I have treasured each of my nieces and nephews, and they taught me, long before I had my own children, that childhood flies by fast.

Caroline

My daughter’s frightening arrival just a bit too soon, in a complicated delivery, taught me how precarious it all can be.

My dad, sitting beside my bed as they transported my newborn to a hospital an hour away, spoke with calm words as he quietly fought back his own worry. “I just know it’s all going to be all right. One day you’ll look back on this and say, ‘Dad was right!’ and then you get to buy ponies and prom dresses and then, before you know it, one day you’ll buy new baby clothes for her babies.”

On the day Caroline finally arrived home, a perfect little thing, her tiny head covered with lots of black hair, Dad held her, looked at me with a great big smile and said, “This is just like little DoBee all over again!’ using the nickname my sisters had given me as a baby, because she looked exactly like my own newborn pictures.

Joy

That baby is just months away from turning 30, and before the year is out, we will welcome two babies with all the joy our hearts can hold, given the wonderful, amazing chance to do it all over again.

Hold on tight. It all goes by so fast.