As Time Goes By

It doesn't feel like 17 1/2 years have passed since we first learned that we would soon become parents. However, all the signs are here that we have aged quite a bit since the eighties and nineties...

The young man is the son of our favorite Sunday school teacher from years ago. Since our teens don't date, or flirt (I trust), this poor fellow is wasting his handsome smiles and akward gestures on my daughter. She happened to be a customer in a store where he works. It makes us all laugh to know who he is, and who his parents are, while he has no idea. His folks would probably tell him that he's barking up the wrong tree if they knew of his harmless behavior. We also remember that he was the kid in the Chick Fil A playplace about ten years ago who was behaving so rowdy that I foolishly voiced my opinion about it to a friend, who told his mother, and my gossiping nearly ruined our friendship. That was a lesson well-learned. These days, I bet my boys are equally loud in there. Thankfully we've embraced those parents of that "rowdy boy" many times over the last ten years. We do love them. I suppose if he grows up and starts thinking about marriage we would enjoy having those conversations with his folks.

I'm thankful that my daughter humbly shared the experience. I am not sure if she realized the young man was flirting until I asked her. She sweetly laughed and told me that she though he was. Anyways, we are definitely in a new season now! I hope they will always tell me everything. I enjoyed telling both of our teen girls that young men who haven't matured enough to be looking for a wife have no idea how to behave around a beautiful young lady. At times like these I enjoy being the older woman in these scenarios, especially since our daughters are entering this adult season in such purity and innocence.

There are those occasions on which I do not always enjoy being the older woman, for example, in the juniors' section of Dillard's. I was waiting while one of our girls tried on some clothes. She has never shopped there before. we shop at thrift stores usually. She decided to try to take a trendy, immodest style on the clearance racks and improve upon it. Since she was using her own debit card for this first-ever new clothing purchase, I supported her. Unfortunately I was left standing in front of the three full length mirrors and bright lights, looking at the reflection of a woman who looked very much like my own mother. She definitely did not look sixteen anymore. When I complained to my daughter about the aged appearance I was seeing, she tried to comfort me. The experience was funny. In my head I'm still a skinny teen girl too. I need to stay away from those department store mirrors. She came out in her trendy, junior-sized dress and looked lovely. I even insisted that she try some of the skinny jeans under the dress just to help me relive some of my teenage memories. Those "old" clothing styles just keep reappearing. I won't be wearing any skinny jeans. I don't think my girls will either. But shopping with them is fun.

I realize these next thoughts do not logically flow but more and more time keeps passing without me having the time to journal/blog. Life is so very busy and rich. God is faithful everyday here. I wish I could record the blessings, each and every one of them.

We've had an extremely dramatic turn of events with a family member, who does not live with us, this past week. God has used the most unfortunate of events and behaviors to draw others together. He is weaving broken and healthy lives together for His glory. Our family has become joined to another forever because an illegitimate child was born to a drug-addicted mother. We were even asking God if we were to become the baby's adopted family. He seems to have clearly answered to the contrary. In the meantime, He is bringing people together who otherwise would have no earthly reason to share their deepest priorities and concerns. The situation has been so tragic and confusing that I have literally prayed all week during each waking moment that His will would be done on earth as in heaven. I haven't known what was best, or what His will was. I couldn't fix the problems. I could only listen to those who had their hands in it, encourage them and pray for them. I was blessed immensely by my Lord who is always near when I rely on Him. I am thankful for deepened relationships and new friendships. May this baby become a mighty man of God with a strong identity in His Heavenly Father. Afterall, this is what really matters for us all.