Whatever they Grow Up to Be!

"Whatever they grow up to be, they are still our children, and the most important of all the things we can give to them is unconditional love. Not a love that depends on anything at all except that they are our children."
Rosaleen Dickson

Do children ever stop needing their parents? I don’t mean in the way you think, not monetarily but in the way that says…. At the end of the day, someone out there loves me and has my back.

I spent the weekend in Van with my precious K -1 and K – 3. The feeling of elation I had as I saw them waiting by the baggage claim! My heart nearly blew out of my chest and I thought, wow, have I ever missed you two! I felt a piece of me was whole again.

They are doing well in Van. The city is vibrant and alive but within this family I have we long to be together always. Being a whole is fulfilling and peaceful but what surprises me most is how whole is defined now. It is much different than before.

I have no right as a parent to have any expectation on my children as to where they live once they are adults. They are free to chose where they go and to whom they go with. It’s weird though, this family connection. It’s what makes your birth hometown your home even when you haven’t lived in it the majority of your life. It’s what makes your heart at ease when the plane lands and you feel the earth that knows you and has been a part of you forever.

But is it earth and things or is it the people, the family you love that makes home….. makes your home?

My kids are so special to me. If all of them moved to Vancouver you can bet that I would pack up and move there too. But what if they splinter…. Some here; some there? What do I do then?

I have a need to smell and see my kidlets to know that a part of me is whole in them. I am their Mom and right now, for this time, the only parent in their lives. They are needed in a way and needy as well to feel and to know that they are part of something bigger than themselves. They need to know we are five and strong and together.

Had you told me five years ago that the K’s would get along let alone have the immense love and determination to be whole as sisters I would have scoffed and thought…pftt, no way! These girls are sisters in every sense of the word and love each other so much and when they are mothering D it is a sight to behold. That poor boy hasn’t a chance! He has 4 mothers and he is loved beyond words and deeds.

This is what completes us as humans, this God given unit we call family. This bond that unites and builds us and gives us strength and peace in a time where the world is so troubled and full of doubt. What I thank the Big Guy for is forgiveness and for tolerance and I have the strongest testimony of healing and the atonement now.

This Christmas we will all be together. The girls and I were talking and it was mentioned that with this Christmas is the possibility of peace for the first time in a huge number of years.

What can I say?

If I had ever wondered that to stand and make the statement of unconditional love as the key to the rebuilding of a very fractured and broken family, I have no doubt about that now!

My children are the bomb! I welcome you to look and to observe and see why this kind of love transcends all hurt and pain. It is the pure love that binds this most important family dimension that God so lovingly granted us. This eternal family of mine.

Amen to peace.

Amen to family!