The Second Blessing.
Making the decision to have a child-it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. – Elizabeth Stone
This morning I saw this quote posted on a friends’ Facebook page. I felt its truth in a hundred different ways.
Today it struck me deeply because 15 years ago I gave birth to child #2.
Slightly less than 18 months after the birth of my first son, God graced me with another little boy.
Since he is not publicly on social media and prefers his privacy, there is not much I can share except that I think that he is amazing.
Yes, I’m biased.
But that’s okay.
Everybody needs a cheerleader in their corner and I will always champion my children.
You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your own eyes. ~Walter M. Schirra, Sr.
I laugh and tell everyone that he named himself.
He does not believe this.
But I picked the name Reed, which it turns out means “red-haired”. My husband didn’t want to pick this name because he might not be a redhead (our first son was a complete towhead for his first 6+ years). We didn’t choose this name but ended up with a name from a similar heritage that had never entered my mind prior to choosing it.
I say he picked it.
But…guess what?!
He is a redhead!
He got his dad’s green eyes (and supposedly his IQ. However, I like to claim that one!)
He is so many things.
Intelligent….adventuresome…. and one of the precious lives that I have been lucky enough to see changing and growing daily.
You are braver than you believe, Stronger than you seem, Smarter than you think, And loved more than you’ll ever know. -A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
I still can’t believe that 15 years have flown by.
Some days it seems like I blinked and here we are.
From nightly dances with legs around my hip to me looking skyward just to be able to see your smile.
From waking up to my bed filled by you and your siblings to waking you from a deep slumber at noon.
From a time that I thought would never end to the days looming on the horizon when you will spring from my nest and I will hope that we have given you all the necessary skills to be successful in that journey.
Someday when the pages of my life end, I know that you will be one of its most beautiful chapters- Unknown
Little boys should never be sent to bed. They always wake up a day older. -Peter Pan
Today, a day older.
Today, a day closer to a man.
My mother’s heart is overwhelmed.
Always my children.
Always my loves.
But always growing closer to the day when they will venture out on their own.
….and she loved the little boy very, very much- even more than she loved herself. -Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree
That’s what this is about though.
This circle of life.
Loving them.
Growing them.
Sending them.
I’ll love you forever
I’ll like you for always
As long as I’m living
My baby you’ll be. – Robert Munsch, Love You Forever
Let your light shine!
Amy
