Do they really grow up too fast?

I have often heard people say that kids grow up too fast.  I never really understood that saying until I had children of my own. It amazes me how quickly my girls have grown up. It seems like just yesterday that I was at the hospital having Grace and in just a little over a month she will be 16.  I can honestly look back and say that the years have went by very fast. I think about the fact that in two years she will graduate and head off to college (she wants to be a forensic anthropologist). Thankfully we have one of the top schools of Anthropology just 45 minutes away so she can always be close to home.

I had a lady ask me once did I not think that our kids grow up fast, I said "Sure they do, but I see things a little differently now than I used too."  When I think back to when my children where first born I imagined all the great things that their lives would hold. I could see them growing up, going to college, marrying and having children of their own. In my mind those days were so far away, but as I have learned those days do come quickly.

My ideas changed after my oldest daughter was diagnosed with Cancer two years ago. It was the scariest news I had ever gotten.  Let me just say that not knowing if your child will live or die gives you a whole new way of looking at life.  All those dreams and plans you had for them seem so far away. I remember wondering how in the world I would continue to live if she died.  I remember thinking that we had lost so much already, would God really take our oldest child from us.  I remember feeling lost, heartbroken and just flat out broken.  Each day was a challenge to hold it all together, I struggled in trying to keep everything "normal". It was so important to make life try to continue on just as it had been. Thankfully today we are celebrating her being in remission for 2 years.  Due to this scare I can honestly say that all I want is for my children to grow up. I always her people talk about keeping their babies little and I just long to watch mine live.  Having lost 3 babies and then having a child face a terminal illness really changes you.  What I used to see as my children leaving us behind I now see as the future. I see them going places and doing amazing things for themselves and other. I want to watch them grow and create lives of their very own. I want to see them live through the good and the bad, but always keep their faith in God, knowing he is always with them.  I want for them to live everyday to the fullest and never stop dreaming.

Sometimes I just sat and watch them, remember when they were little and wonder what the future holds for them.  I hope and pray for each of them happiness, success and a lifetime of good things, but I also pray that I have giving them what they need to handle the bad times when they do come, because bad times will come.


I guess the question still remains, "Do they really grow up too fast?" I have to say in my opinion, I am just glad they grow up.

"That's my 'two-cents worth', what's yours?"