It dawned on me how very special life has become. Ever since our sweet little Eloise has come into our life, priorities have shifted. Peace is fought for, even while life is moving at a faster pace. It seems that the moments stand still, these are the moments that we will someday miss, long for, and yet I already do.
Walking around the farm, collecting eggs from our chickens, caring for our garden, watching the pumpkins grow, which have already so much so in preparation for fall.
Pulling her around in the little red wagon. Being reminded of my childhood with all my city-kid friends, speeding down cement hills in a red wagon with a milk-crate-makeshift seat. Life has changed in many ways for me, though I see glimpses of the beautiful parts of my childhood.
Of course our goal as parents is to make our child's life easier, more beautiful, and less painful than our childhood may have been, but there is no sparing from life‘s ups and downs. The best that we can do is give her all of our love, the best of everything that we know, and hopefully she’ll become strong, wise, gracious, loving, forgiving, and all the other good things that we learned from those who loved us well.
In this moment, as I write this, I feel the sun on my bare shoulders and I hear her sweet little voice playing outside, imagining, make-believe, and all I want to do is freeze time…knowing there will be a day that I look back, remembering, missing, longing for this moment.
