Creating Memories

For the last week, I have been in Florida
To attend my middle son's wedding.

I can't help but think of when he was little...
Little eskimo baby
(That's what he looked like).
He happily slept all the way through the first night.
I thought he was dead when I woke in the morning
to find they had never brought him to me.
I freaked out...called the nurse.
He had stuck his thumb in his mouth...
and happily fell back asleep.

I remember the time a friend of ours
was working in our barn and Alex sat there with him,
"To make sure you don't steal any of my Dad's stuff!"
(Like we had anything worth stealing)
When Adam and him stuck a stick in a hornest nest.
It was Adam's idea, but he stood way back while Alex
experimented!
He came screeching in the house and had to be drugged
for two days while he healed...
The time when he was four and he hugged his friend,
And the friend pushed him away and said, Don't touch me.
I remember the look of hurt on his face...
The times when he would push Adam
a little too far...
and Adam would clean his clock!
And then they would both get in trouble for fighting.
(Even though Alex really deserved it, for being such a pest!)
All these things a Mother carries with her. Like Mary.
"But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart."
(Lk. 2:19)

But now, we are creating new memories...
He is leaving his childhood memories...
and going on to his adult memories.
Instead of making my memories...
he is making his own...
memories for their life together.

Kind of bittersweet for a Mom.
Knowing this is how it is supposed to be...
But feeling a loss nonetheless.
Excited for them and their future...
But missing those little moments...
those little memories that you will always carry with you...
but never get to relive.
Loving the quiet time you now have...
But missing the chaos that once governed your life.

I have a friend (Sunnykins) who has a blog called
"A Beautiful Mess". She got the idea from someone else
cause it typified her life.
And I have to claim it too...
cause it describes my life when all the guys were around.
The Beautiful Mess that was our lives.


OK, now that I got you all crying...
Let me tell you,
I am sitting in a motel room on the shores of Pensacola Beach
Overlooking the ocean on a warm summer morning...
writing my blog
while the world goes on around me.
Enjoying a quiet cup of coffee
and the smell of the ocean.


And now, I also am creating new memories.
Memories of grown kids, grandkids,
travels with my husband.
My sister and I can have an uninterrupted conversation.
(Well, unless I go to her house...she still has a 4 year old.)
All the things that make up an entire life.
If life always stayed the same
I would get bored, I'm sure.
I get bored easily. My husband says its a spiritual issue.
No doubt.
I like change (as long as it doesn't hurt...which it usually does, btw)


And now the point of this whole thing...
I have a friend...who sticks closer than a brother.
He will be with me through all the changes my life takes.
He shares each memory, each moment I have gone through.
He can help me through all the tough changes
and laugh with me through all the easy changes.
And one day when I see Him face to face...
All that I have gone through, good and bad,
will fade away as I look at the face I have longed to see
all these years.
And it will all be worth it all...

And I will once again be creating new memories.