Quality time

This Saturday, we'll be picking up our next-to-youngest grandson, Cannon, for a weeklong visit with Grandma and Aunt Darice and Uncle Ron. While his brothers, Dustin and Hunter, have visited us here many times, Cannon is just now getting to the age when he can be away from Mom for any length of time. We'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to lots of giggles and hugs, sloppy kisses and sleepy cries. Whatever happens, though, we'll love being able to spend the uninterrupted time with him and relish the opportunity he'll have to feel at home at our house, to get to know us for more than a day or two at a time, and to show off all the things he's been learning at home. Mom tells me he's learned how to crawl out of his crib and other assorted escape measures that 15-month-old little boys (and girls) are thrilled to master. Even though he won't get more than a foot away before we scoop him up, he'll have the fun of knowing he did it--that he got one past us! There will be long walks and playground stops, splashing in the pool and going for rides, visiting the stores and getting a bite to eat somewhere.

Most of all, however, I'm looking forward to the quiet times when I can hold him and rock him and savor the oh-so-fleeting moments when he thinks being held by Grandma is the greatest thing in the world (short of being held by Mama, of course!). Those times, as do all precious times with our children and grandchildren, fly away at the "speed of growing up," that fastest of all phenonema experienced by little girls and boys the world over.

Then, a week from Saturday, we'll drive back up to our rendezvous point and swap little Cannon for his two brothers, who will begin their annual two-week summer visit at our house. They're old hands at visiting us here in Mississippi, so they no doubt have their itinerary all planned--if it's anything like it's been for the past few visits, it'll be an exhaustive one! But as with all wonderful things in this life, it's well worth the effort, time, money, short nights, long days, and skewed schedules just to have them with us.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us Dustin and Hunter and Cannon and Tyler to love and cherish, and for allowing us to help out their parents once in a while by having them spend quality time with us. We promise we'll do our part to see to it that these youngsters (and any others who may come along someday) are raised as children of You, our Heavenly Father.

Until the next time...