Quickly Flow The Years…

08 Jun, 2018

In the musical “Fiddler On The Roof”, the parents’ of the bride and groom sing about how their children have grown so quickly.  “Is this the little girl I carried?” goes one line.  “When did she get to be a beauty?”goes another. “Wasn’t it yesterday when they were small? Sunrise. Sunset. Sunrise. Sunset. Quickly flow the years. One season following another, flowing with happiness and tears.”  The years were quick, but oh have they been sweet.

What happened to the little one I carried?  She is a a young woman now. In my mind’s eye she is the toddler with a crib full of pacifiers. To make life easier, we’d toss six of them in your crib. You would hold them in your hands and rotate one after another into your mouth systematically. Sometimes during the day, I’d hold one behind my back and rattle the handle and your eyes would light up. Like to think we’d never break you of those. But you made it to high school without them!!  

When Jeffrey started school and it was just you and me, I’d chased you around the house. It was belly laughs and squeals of delight as you ran from me and I’d catch you from behind and cuddle you in my arms. We started our now infamous trips to Target back then with your Little Tykes plastic shopping cart. You learned to shop Target well.  Although I still have cuts on the back of my ankles from where you rammed that tiny cart into me.

Every year I was your class parent and volunteered each week. There wasn’t a day or a battle that I wasn’t there to fight for you when someone was picking on you or hurting you. When you got silent lunch in kindergarten for not bringing in your baggy book, and you cried all day, someone got a piece of my mind. You were only 5 for Pete’s sake.  No one puts my Baby in a corner, to put a twist on a iconic phrase.

Some of my favorite memories of you are when you played Upward Basketball.  What you lacked in height, you made up for in tenacity.  No one out played you on defense or offense. Actually, I think you always had the ball, were attempting to get the ball, were inbounding the ball, were bringing the ball up court or were scraping for the ball on the floor.  Lebron James has nothing on you.  

In middle school your dad introduced you to softball. It may be the single best thing that ever happened to you. You learned the importance of team play, competition, discipline, confidence, more than anything you learned how to fight through adversity. You hung in there when things were very tough. You never gave up, even when I knew you wanted to. You kept you emotions at bay and held your head high. I know that came from God and the many people lifting you up in prayer. I hope you know that too. At this year’s Ragsdale Softball Awards Ceremony you won the Ragsdale Diamond “R” Award for leadership on the field and playing the game correctly with heart and intensity. How proud you made your dad and me…especially your dad.

More than anything Kelliann I am so proud of how you have always chosen to go to Sunday school, to be in a small Bible study group, to go on retreats and inner city church service projects out of state.  Each Wednesday night you faithfully go to the big church group and then on Sundays you are off to your small group to learn more about the God who made you to have a relationship with Him. In the process you’ve learned about yourself and who you are-who you are in Him.  It is my prayer that the good work that He began in you will continue as you go out into this crazy world.  

You have become my best friend. No one make me laugh so hard that my stomach hurts and cramps, my mascara runs and I cannot breath.  It difficult for some to believe that we have a Snapchat streak and that I have been heart broken when I forgot a day and broke our long streak. It was you who reassured me that it was “not that deep” and that we’d just start another.  There are few things that I enjoy more than curling up on the couch with you and watching “Castle”, “Friends” or the The Office”.  I am so proud of you for not being a weekend partier.  With dad working nights and weekends, I coveted my time with you.  How I love scratching your back and tucking your hair behind your ear each night while listening to your hopes and dreams-or laughing until we scare the dog.  Either late at night or in the morning, us three girls, you me and Lexie all curled up in your bed, it does not get any better than that.  You don’t know this, but I take a mental snap shot every time, making sure that I never forget or take one moment for granted.  You are truly a gift from God.

And so my my beauty the years have indeed flowed quickly into each other. And in that time God has grown you into a strong woman before my eyes. You have a sense of right and wrong that will serve you, and those around you, well. Do not suffer injustice for yourself or anyone. Fight the good fight,  

I leave you with the verse I gave you at birth, “ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you strength and with all you mind,” and, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)  You will succeed in life if you do this. It is foolproof. Go with God as He goes with you. 

“I’ll love you forever. I’ll like you for always.  As long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.”

Mommy