Mothers and Daughters and Sons, Oh My!

When I was pregnant with my second child, I already had a lively and highly inquisitive five year old on hand. It came as quite a shock, this second chance at the whole parenting adventure.  I had endured several miscarriages, and the pregnancy itself was very high risk and fraught with set backs.  So I cannot lie - the thought of another child was a bit overwhelming.

Maybe Fairy Tales DO come true!

For years I have said that if God has someone in mind for me, then he will bring the guy through the door and drop him in my lap.  Obviously, I never really thought that would happen.  Fooled me!

After a lifetime of knowing each other, and coming up on a year of dating, this past weekend my own version of Prince Charming asked me to marry him.  Obviously, not being a fool, I said yes!  What a long and winding road it has been, getting to this place I never dreamed I would inhabit.  But here I am, and I couldn't be more happy.  Or surprised.

The long and winding road...

I think most people look forward to the point in their lives when they are settled, when life is fairly set, when they can be in their comfortable groove and know what to expect from the day to day.  They have their home, their job, their family, their routine - everything is in its place, and they can relax and move through the days and weeks without much thought or effort.  Its not that we, as humans, want our lives to be ordinary, per se.  But it is comforting to know what is coming, to feel we have a handle on the future.

But here's the thing.  At 52, I have finally learned that moment will never really come.  Just when you think your life is set, something will come along and upset the apple cart.  And although it can be hard at the time, in retrospect, it is often those very moments of change that make life most interesting and worthwhile.

Redeemed...

My life has been an adventure from day one.  I can only imagine the consternation my impending arrival must have caused my teenaged biological single mother in 1960.  I am sure it was the last thing she, or her family, hoped for her life, and I hope she has never regretted giving me away to someone who was in a place to give me everything she couldn't.  I have been a handful and a half, and she was probably not up to it.  I shudder to think where I would be if she hadn't given me to the parents God meant me to have.

Live, laugh, love....

Sights, sounds, scents.  All can unexpectedly evoke images in our mind and memory of someone we loved who is no longer here with us.  The smell of doughnuts frying reminds me of my beloved aunt.  The sight of candy corn in the fall always makes me smile as I remember a special association with my uncle.  My dad's favorite song still makes me cry every time I hear it.  Red candles remind me of my friend, gone far too soon.

Today, as we mourn the loss of my mother's closest friend, a woman who has been there with my mom through the deaths of two husbands, the raising of children, the horrors of adolescence, the joys of being grandparents, countless church pot lucks, Vacation Bible School weeks, and most especially, raising their voices together as they put faith in action through song, I am thinking about the distinctive laugh that was her hallmark.  I can hear it now in my mind, as she exclaims, "Oh Donald," over something her husband said or did, laughing out loud even as she was exasperated with him.