Do you have children in your life? What is your relationship with them like? Do you have godchildren, and how do you form a relationship with them? Does having children in (or not in) your day-to-day life make you feel happy, wistful, or wary (of having your own someday)?
My life pretty much is babies (read by Day in the Life post). The funny thing is I thought when I moved to Pittsburgh I would have less children and babies in my life. How foolish I was because really I have even more. But the babies at work aren't the same as children I really have relationships with.
At home, I have a family that I have grown super close to since they were my CORE members in youth group in high school. They have three kids and one cooking in mommy's belly. They are basically my niece and nephews. The funny thing is the other day someone at Church thought the dad was my parents' son so apparently they are like my niece and nephews even to bystanders. The little girl is also my Goddaughter and she is just the able of my eye. She calls me NaNa as soon as I walk in the door and she could be rotten and I would still steal some sugar. When I am at home I do basically everything with them-grocery shopping, school pick-up, zoo trips. I actually know more of the preschool moms at our parish then the young adults. That was a bit of a red flag for me when considering where to settle in when I was job searching. It is beautiful to spend so much time with them and if I lived at home right now I probably would spend all my free time with them. But I can't do that because their life isn't my state in life. I can't be a mom without kids, I need to be a single young adult. When I am living life with them I do want kids of my own because I would love my kids to grow up with them (which could still happen) but for the most part I just love loving on them and handing them off when they are particularly rotten. Perks of not being a mom.
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| I also nannyed when I lived at home. |
So they say that when you work in obstetrics you get baby fever. I can honestly say that most days this isn't true for me. However when I have particularly great or particularly awful patients I want to be having my own baby. Normally it is just a quick tug on my heart that quickly leaves as I change out of my scrubs but I can't deny that some days I really want to be the one with the big belly anxiously waiting for the first breath of my little one.
So yes, I have a lot of kids and babies in my life. And yes, somedays it really makes my heart yearn to have little heads of my own to kiss but I know that the Lord's timing is perfect and in His perfect will little hands and feet will come. Until then all I can do is learn and love the kids I already have around me.
Getting to hand them off is the best part of spending time with kids that aren't yours!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about needing to be single, though. I would take up babysitting (if I thought I could handle someone else's kid on my own), but that's the time and energy I use these days to get out of the house. There are no single men in here, and I'm never getting married if I don't get out! Conundrum.
Yes, it is nice to be able to hand the kids back to the parents when they're being particularly difficult. My mom has told me on occasion that it is much easier when the kids are your own. There is a particular grace that comes along with being a parent. "the Lord's timing is perfect and in His perfect will little hands and feet will come. Until then all I can do is learn and love the kids I already have around me." - what a good reminder!
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