Someday you'll get it

When I used to regularly watch the McDonalds' kids, Britany used to say, "Someday you'll get it."

"you'll get how important it is, as a Mom- to have someone loving on your kids. Especially when there's not family around. It's just hard to explain how much it means. But someday when you have kids, you'll get it."

In a lot of ways I learned about kids through the 4 McDonald kids. I can't even go into how much I miss them. Their son was the only one I cried saying goodbye to when we left Scotland. As I tucked him into bed the last time he asked, "How many more sleeps til we get to see you?"

Ohhhh boy.

Anyway, I wondered if we'd have people in our lives to love on our kids that way. Especially without family around. It's a given that family loves on them (and boy, does our family)- but when you live in a city without any family members, you're at the mercy of God putting people in your path for that very purpose.

And He has.

Just this past month I have really felt: 1) old, and 2) really thankful. Like, wait- I was just 22, watching the McDonald's kids just yesterday, wasn't I?





And now here we are at an engagement party, 10 years older than everyone else in attendance- our kids the only little ones there, and being loved on by all kinds of college students. They were being fed those little individual jams, running up and down the aisles just so they could watch and giggle at Kate's cute run- we were definitely the parents in attendance.



God has graced us with someone we call on regularly- who our kids know and love (Ms. Cecily)



And really where it came full circle for me is when this couple (who really feels more like family at this point) insisted on watching our kids for free, so we could go on a date. A date that ended up being FOUR HOURS.



It's been a time warp blessing, this month. And now I know what Britany means. I can take our friends up on their free date night offer too knowing, first hand, that they'll be blessed 10 times more in return for serving us!