Look Honey, We Made People

If I had ever paused to think about it, I would have seen this coming.  However, there were too many “Mom” things to do along the way for me to notice. 

I guess it dawned on me a couple of months ago, when I was standing in our living room talking to my kids.  While there is nothing unusual about that, every aspect of it  was different somehow.  

Though we stood face to face, my two daughters, Crystal,  age 23, and Malloree, age 14, were forced to look up to my 21-year-old son, Andrew.  I cannot recall the subject of our conversation, but it was refreshing to realize that it seemed to matter what each of us was saying.  We were not interrupting each other, and approached one another almost as equals.

Somewhere near the end of this moment, even taking the risk of ruining it, I yelled out to my husband, Thomas, in the other room:

“Look Honey, we made people!”

This fact should not surprise me.  I suppose that deep down, I believed they would always be viewed as our kids – and that I would be the extension cord that connected them to the outside world.

Thank goodness I was wrong!

I definitely never wanted them to depend on me for everything.  But it does start that way in the beginning, and quickly continues on in a marathon of laundry, school projects, dance recitals, studying for exams, athletic uniform pictures, sports picnics, learner’s permits, fender benders, first boyfriends or girlfriends, followed by first heartbreaks, proms, college applications, and then finally, graduation from high school. 

In order to survive this whirlwind, a Mom sometimes feels as if nothing can happen unless I am there to make it happen.   

Thankfully, it is not up to us, as parents, to be with our kids every step of the way or to chart out their futures.  If that were the case, I fear that I would hold them back.   Any plans I have for their futures would be tainted with “Mom emotion” and my desire to keep them close to home.

But, as my kids have grown, I have instilled in them the fact that God created them and he will show them what paths to take, since his plans are the only ones that really work out in the long run anyway.  

Now that two-thirds of my kids have moved 750 miles away, that doesn’t stop the “Mom emotion” that makes my heart long to see them again. 

But, I rest in the fact that God knows what he is doing, and he has done an amazing job with them so far.    

Apparently, he must have known they would grow into people all along, and I trust him to finish what he started.

Janet Morris Grimes is a Christian wife and mother of three from Nashville, TN. Recently relocating to Michigan through her husband's job transfer, she has chosen writing as her profession, admitting that "sometimes we chase our dreams, but other times, they chase us, wrestling us to the ground until we finally surrender to their power." View her blog as she chronicles this journey on "Writing for the Pursuit of Sappiness" at www.janetmorrisgrimes.com.