Dear Childhood, please stay just a little bit longer!

Giving Thanks but Childhood couldn't you stay just a little bit longer? 💗

When our youngest, aka Sweetpea, was a senior in HS he and his buddies from grammar school decided on their last Halloween together to go Trick or Treating one last time. His older brothers really ribbed him about being way too old but inwardly I was glad they were having fun and not up to mischief. Heck, I was still calling him Sweetpea and they ribbed me for that. 

The following Halloween he sent me a picture from the back of a Chinook helicopter. My heart skipped a beat.  What a difference a year makes! How could this have happened? How could this have happened- THIS FAST? 

This all just got way too real for this Mom and childhood toys and games were not even remotely a part of this adventure.

I am so truly glad I was never one to rush my kids’ to grow up and put away their their toys. Oh wait, I actually yelled at them to put away their toys, a lot! Okay, you got me on that one. But what I mean is I am so very, very glad they were still playing with toys and being children. Even if they each got their first jobs at 13-14 yrs old (a story for another post), they came home to ride their bikes and play manhunt in the woods. 

Even though I let them be children for as long as they wished; Childhood still went by way too fast! 

This past weekend Sweetpea married his high school sweetheart. Before family and friends they declared their love for one and other in the secrament of Holy Matrimony. I just cannot believe this! I cry tears of full emotion just trying to get my head around this. Can you believe this? I just can't.

He married a woman who adores him and they love and respect each other. They are both military. Many people say that the military will help to mature young people a lot faster than anything else and that is one of the reasons they marry younger than others the same age. I saw that first hand. They were both full time college students when they joined. While their friends were off at spring break they were off at drill. So many other rites of passage that college students experience they chose not to. And they were okay with that even if others did not understand.

Who knew that when he was just a very little boy at the beach playing in the sand with his brothers' plastic toy soldiers  that years later it would no longer be considered playing? 

He loves his job and from what I hear, he is also very good at it. He adores his wife and is living his life to the fullest with a happy heart. 

My cup runeth over! 
Truly, truly blessed!