Grow Old Along With Me!

I've been thinking about what it means to be a grandparent lately.  I suppose that's because our little Elijah turns one year old tomorrow, and Brian will be two in less than two months.  My wife and I have had a lot of fun with them since they were born, and we are grateful for every minute we get to spend with our boys.

In my earliest memories, my grandparents were already pretty old.  My Grandpa Stanley, in fact, passed away when I was very young, and my Grandpa Ben before I was out of high school.  I remember him a little better, not only because I was older, but because he was a very vivid kind of personality.  He loved his family a lot, and enjoyed running into his grandkids uptown when he was on his daily rounds.  We used to time our own visits to the barbershop so that we'd catch him there, because he liked emptying all the change in his pockets into our hands.  Made walking home easier, I guess.  Both my grandmothers were a little more reserved, but there was never any question they loved all their grandkids.

We've tried to pass that same love down to our own grandchildren.  Brian was born March 15th, 2011, in Stafford County, Virginia, and we were there to welcome him pretty soon after Alicia and Nate brought him home from the hospital.  We've been to Virginia several other times, and now to Pittsburgh as well, and we always have a lot fun when we can get there.  Skype has turned out to be our best friend, because it lets Brian get his 'Nonna' fix every couple of days.

And then Elijah came along.  In January of 2012, our daughter Margaret and her husband Nathan got a call telling them that a birth mother in a neighboring state had chosen them to adopt her little one (please ask God's blessing for her in your prayers - we do every day).  Then, they got the call that they needed to be there pretty quick if they wanted to see the baby being born. They climbed in their car and raced a few hundred miles, welcomed him into the world on the 26th, and then we were able to bring him home on February 3rd.  We're due to celebrate his first birthday tomorrow, and we can't wait.

So what is the experience of being a grandparent like?  It's a kick, actually.  It's like the sweet dessert at the end of a meal.  You can enjoy the kids, but you're not totally responsible for them.  That probably makes your whole relationship with them easier, and they pick up on that.  It's a whole different level of satisfaction.  And if you're young enough, and well enough, to get down on the floor and play with them before they can walk, how much fun is that?  It makes me think of some of my favorite lines from Browning, in 'Rabbi Ben Ezra':

     Grow old along with me!
     The best is yet to be!
     The last of life, for which the first was made...