grandkids are God's reward to us for not killing our kids when they were teenagers

If you haven't experienced the joy of grandparenting yet, my heart goes out to you. There is no other experience in life to compare it to. It truly is God's gift to us for allowing our children to live when they were in those teen years and seemed to be throwing themselves headlong into their own self destruction at times. I am laying here recuperating in a murphy bed that pulls out of the wall in my grandson's (Parker) playroom at my daughter and son in laws home. On the walls are pictures of his handprints, zoo adventures, toothless grins, and fat baby cheeked photographs. I recall each one of these phases with vivid memories of lots of joy and laughter. It was as if the day he entered this world, May 23, 2004...this old lady was reborn into a child again. I had the privilege of keeping him in my home every day as my daughter worked and watching his first smiles, first teeth, first words, first steps, and even his first little acts of rebellion. I could recount in him the days of his moms childhood as well as see in him the promise of a young man who was shaping up to be much like the man we had come to know in his precious young father. There is no joy like it on earth. Then nearly four years later came sweet Hailey, our first granddaughter and the first child of our son Randy. I remember the fear that gripped me when her birth seemed to be nearing a difficult phase and the prayers that I pled with God to bring her to us safely and take good care of her sweet momma too. When she entered the world, a beautiful little porcelain package all decked out in her mom's good looks and healthy, I breathed a sigh of relief and whispered my prayer of thanks back to God for His brand new gift to us. She is sitting in the livingroom right now in her footie jammies watching little mermaid with her pretty blonde hair streaming down her back and her baby blue eyes lighting up the room. Yes, I am glad that we chose to let our children live through those tough years (when you sure do feel like taking them out sometimes) so that we can now reap the benefits of Parker and Hailey...and of course more coming along the way. Grandchildren truly are a crown on the gray hairs of this old woman that make me feel like the princess that God always intended for me to be!Just the ramblings of one tired Jamerican....Selah!