Time to come home. But first let me give credit where credit is due, I saw what I used for the title, “Whole Again”, in a caption our friend Melissa Wachs posted on Facebook. Thanks Melissa. As Ken Blanchard says some of my greatest ideas have already been thought by other people. Nothing wrong with sharing. 🙂
It’s the most wonderful time of the year II. The day the girls come back home from sleep away camp. Though sometimes you feel like it’s the day they leave ;), and my wife Debbie and I take advantage of the “alone” time, the only reason you feel that way is because you know the girls are well taken care of, having the time of their lives and… will be coming back home.
Home. Before I got married I heard this line, that until you wed and create a family, the structure you live in can only be referred to as a house, it’s your family that makes it a home. In fact, to the best of my recollection, I shared that line on live TV at the tail end of a montage I had put together about Debbie and I, the day before our wedding.
That union soon led to the creation of our two daughters, Sophie and Emily, who today return from another great experience at Emma Kaufmann Camp in West Virginia, our house does a 360, and it’s home again. Our girls might be sad, having had just shared tearful goodbyes with their friends, new and old, and the fantasy world of living at a fantastic camp for three weeks, but we are thrilled. Home again.
The four walls and roof which shelter a significant part of our daily lives will soon be filled again with the sound of our girls voices, sometimes happy, sometimes sad, never boring. It’s all a part of the miracle, and if you believe in it and accept the responsibility of raising children, then you take it in for all it’s worth. A good friend of mine told me right before I was to get married, that marriage was the easy part. But once you welcome children into the world, the stress level I had then, which could be at zero, would never come close to that bottom number again. Just for the simple reason that no matter what, no matter where your children might be, under roof, a couple hundred miles away, or on the other side of the world, your number one concern will always be their well-being.
He’s right. Once you create life, or even adopt a life into your home, your life is no longer about you, it is forever about them and making sure that life, or lives, are safe, happy, healthy and successful. But the one thing my friend didn’t share with me was the other side, because it’s impossible to describe until it happens. Yes, concern is always there, the stress level will never again reach bottom, but it’s the flip side that makes it all worth it.
It’s the joy. The joy can be off the charts, so high that no measurement can ever do it justice, there is no number large enough to mark its place in your heart, it is literally to infinity and beyond. Embrace the gift of your children and life gives you its greatest blessing. It’s love literally multiplied more times than you can ever count.
Today those gifts return. There will be hugs and tears as we greet Sophie and Emily when they get off the bus. Then, after lunch with family and friends, who I’m sure share many of the same feelings I just described, it will be time to head back home.
Home again. Whole again.
<
Until next time, thanks for taking the time.
Mark
As usual Mark, wonderful words. Also, great for grandparents to have their grandchildren home again. Although it is not our house they return to, remember the grandchildren are always, always in their grandparents heart and soul.