Where Has The Time Gone?

Today is the second day of the new school year. We are still running on the adrenaline rush brought on by the intoxicating smell of new sneakers, crayons, and freshly sharpened pencils. After the near-fiasco of our bus forgetting our stop and having to come back for the children yesterday, routines are beginning to establish in the minds of students, parents, and teachers alike. Bud is entering Kindergarten this year and had a half day yesterday, but he is full-time as of today. Li'l G is a sophisticated second grader now, having breezed through two years of school already. Faster than we could get our cameras out of our pockets this morning, when the big, yellow bus heaved to a stop in front of us, the kids whooped, hollered, cheered, and peeled out to run and claim the best seat on the bus, leaving a crowd of parents waving and cheering them on. Today was Bud's first day on the bus. This is the child that has always been apprehensive and teary-eyed for the first week of school every year so far, but this time, he didn't even look back. No hint of hesitation, no smooch good-bye. Nothin' but dust coming up from the trail he blazed onto the bus, like the roadrunner getting away from Wile E. Coyote. Who are these children, and what have they done with Bud and Li'l G?!?!?

These are the children I remember...

NOT these!...

(Sorry about the sleepy pregnant lady in the third picture. She's not "showing", she's just preparing her fat reserves for breast feeding... yeah... )

As I came back in the house from my jog with R. after the kids left for school, I sat down to blog about this bewildering experience I had just had, incredulous that we have finally reached such a milestone in our lives. What will actually go on on that bus? Will my children make friends? Will they be the type of friend a friend would like to have? We've been doing devotions together each night and been talking a lot about prayer and how God is always with us and will always be there to listen to us. Will they remember these things when they are fearful or anxious? Will Bud remember our devotion last night about honesty? (a very timely lesson for him) As all these things are piling up on my mental scratch pad as I perch in front of the computer, I begin to peruse the digital files for the right pictures to translate from my heart to the readers this mother's experience. Then, of course, I would happen across pictures like this:

Indeed, I ask, "Where has the time gone?" It seems like only yesterday I had two children in diapers whose only joy in life was to snuggle with their parents and watch "Blues Clues". Now I have these much taller, diaperless people who ride bikes without training wheels, tie their own shoes, and have opinions about pretty much anything and everything. These precious years, trying and tragic though they have been at times, have been no less beautiful and sacred to me. I only wish I had savored them more.

With the previously-mentioned upcoming addition to the family due to arrive next spring, I am even more keenly aware that we must not take these experiences for granted or be in a hurry to push on to the next stage in life. Just as quickly as these babies were born and learned to walk, they will grow up and leave the safety of home and want to embark on their own adventures even further away from my arms' reach. And just as we have been learning in our devotions, thankfully there is nowhere where my family can go where God -- and my love -- is not constantly present with them.

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." -- Proverbs 22:5