Babies Don't Keep

I nursed Clara to sleep last night, as usual. She was wearing a nightgown that her daddy bought for her before she was even born. Actually, it was part of a matching set... one for her, and one for me. (It was the first time I realized that she and I could wear matching clothes!) She had little white socks on her feet and her chubby baby legs were stretched out and exposed. She lay sleeping beside me on our bed in the dark, sometimes changing position and smiling in her sleep. I watched her. And I thought about how quickly she is growing and changing.

I imagined her as a woman someday. Clara, at age 25. What would she be like? What would she remember of her childhood? Tears ran down my cheek as I came to grips with the fact that these days are fleeting. There won't always be diapers or lullabys. There won't always be chubby little legs, or a thumb in her mouth, or her body snuggled next to mine in the middle of the night. Someday my children will have grown and will no longer need me as they do now. They will leave. And they will cleave to someone else of their own choosing.

What is this special time of life that God gives to parents? He trusts me to care for my children, to love them, to nurture them, and someday release them. To give them roots... then wings. This year of babyhood, before the time of disciplining and toilet training and teaching them begins, is a wonderful time to just love them. When I look into her baby face, her sky blue eyes, my heart overflows with the knowledge that God has given our family a most precious gift.

Since her birth, I have often looked into our future and what I see is a picture of us in my mind. A shared moment, between mother and daughter. I stand beside her, a girl of 7 or 8, with her hand in mine. We are walking through the woods together on a beautiful path, with the sounds of birds all around us. She is looking up at me as we discuss this and that, and I feel the greatest joy as I look down at her.
I am content...
I am blessed...

Cleaning and scrubbing
can wait till tomorrow,
For babies grow up
We've learned to our sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs
Dust go to sleep,
I'm rocking my baby
And babies don't keep.