That new grandbaby is here and she’s a petite sweetheart at five pounds ten ounces and seventeen and a half inches. Both Mom and Raegan Elizabeth are doing well and big sisters and brother are proud and happy. Grammy and Pa haven’t gotten to hold her yet. We were there last night soon after the birth but she needed to rest. We’ll get our chance soon. There’s something about holding those little babies for the first time. They are always so tiny, so precious.
Grandchildren are a blessing awarded to those of us who have a bigger birthday number than we could have ever imagined possible back when we were the young people having the babies to make our parents grannies and granddads. Grandkids are worth the wait. And even better you know what a blessing and treasure your own children are receiving as they hold that newborn baby full of promise and love.
Perhaps that’s the best gift of all – knowing the gift your son or daughter has been given. Grandparents just stand on the sidelines and cheer while offering a special brand of pure love that has few conditions. And when they shine that love down on the little ones, it reflects back to them so that a grandma doesn’t mind reading that same book for the fiftieth time. That glow of pure love makes a granddad just smile when the fishing hook gets tangled up in a tree branch – again. We’ve been around the block a few times. We know nobody is perfect. We’re not. Our children aren’t. And even though we claim our grandchildren are, we really know better and that they’ll make mistakes the same as the rest of us. But we also know we’re going to love them right through those mistakes while we keep them in our prayers.
So I was happy to welcome another grandbaby into my life last night. Here’s a couple of quotes that I think will make most grandparents nod in agreement.
“It’s funny that those things your kids did that got on your nerves seem so cute when your grandchildren do them.” …Anonymous
“Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends – and hardly ever our own grown children.” .. Ruth Goode
Hope you grandparents out there are remembering fun times you’ve had with your grandbabies and those of you who are too young for to be grannies and granddaddies yet will be remembering special times with your own grandparents and that you’re smiling.
In writing news, the panel I’m on at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest in Bowling Green has been changed. I’m now doing the Historical Fiction panel with Leisha Kelly, Kathleen Kent, and Ashley Crownover at 10 a.m. Hope if you’re in the area, you’ll come by and say hello. The Book Fest is always a great event with a variety of writers. You know, some big, some small, some old, some young, but all of us putting words on paper and hoping somebody wants to read those words.