My Greatest Joy

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-grandparents-day-sunday-after-labor-day/

Ever since I can recall, I wanted to be a grandmother.  I wanted to be the kind who baked cookies for the entire neighborhood and cared for all the kids, whether they were mine or not.  As I never had the passion for cooking, that is not the grandma I became.  However, I am still filled with love for all the kids I encounter, though none are as magical as my own precious grandbabies.

Being a mother was a gift.  I love my daughters beyond words and wouldn’t trade them for anything.  However, it is a stressful and trying occupation to be a parent.  You worry about the well-being of the children you care for on a very intense level for you are truly shaping who they are.  You fret because you are responsible for their care – mind, body, and soul.  You question everything, overthinking late into the night… even when you do things right, you ruminate, wondering how you could’ve done it better.

Then…  you are blessed with the grandchildren.

This miracle is more than you can expect.  It not only renewed my maternal love for my own children, but it expanded my heart for the new members of my family.  Their presence helped my daughters to understand my husband and me on new levels, bringing us closer, while allowing us to be the ‘parents’ we wish we could have been all along.

As grandparents, we simply get to love.
We don’t have the same stresses and worries we had as parents.  Instead, we have all the joy without all the fear.  Oh, you still have it, but it is different.  You aren’t the SOLE or DIRECT caregiver, which makes a difference.  It allows you to be fun, playful, and calm in situations where you weren’t with your own kids.  It’s a whole new world.  A world that you saw through your youthful eyes, then again through your children’s view, and in a refreshed way through your grandkids.

AMAZING!!!!