grandparents

My kids are the luckiest.

Growing up, I felt like the luckiest kid because I got to live around the block from my grandparents. We visited them frequently, perhaps too frequently sometimes. It was in their cozy home that I hid behind the couches while my siblings watched Indiana Jones and Ghostbusters. It was in their home that I learned the significance of a pink, square box on Saturday mornings (the pink box contained donuts of course). It was in their home that I sorted buttons and played the golf game on an old box computer. It was in their home that I sat on my grandpa's lap, pinching his fingertips, causing him to make funny faces that made me giggle so hard. 

My small family had the opportunity to live with my other grandparents for a short time, and I learned what CMT was and ordered my first CD (Clint Black featuring Wynona Judd). I also learned to eat salad, and I'm forever grateful for that.  I loved sitting upstairs staring at my grandpa's train set. I wish I had been wise enough to ask him for it when they moved because of my son. My grandma patiently sat with me and taught me how to hand stitch. I loved attending quilting group with her. I also oddly remember going to a nearby breakfast place and ordering the best pancakes of my life. Sadly, that restaurant and my grandparents' old home is gone now, being burned in the recent Paradise fires. 

My four grandparents were my world. They took me to see glaciers, taught me to fish, brought me treats at church, and smiled at me in only the way grandparents could. And then we moved. And my world shifted, and it was hard. It's been hard to remain close ever since because life has put so many states between us, but I am grateful for my grandparents--for who they were when I was a child and who they are now because I have learned unspeakable lessons from them, perhaps without them even knowing. 

I am fairly certain that I've written about this before, but my grandpa (my dad's dad) never really has spoken that much when we all get together as a family. However, the words that he has said over the years have left a distinct impression on my mind and heart, a few in particular. I remember struggling with my faith, and I mentioned it to my grandpa, and he looked me square in the eyes and said, "Janine, I think that if you need to take a step aside for a moment, God will still love you. You say that God is a loving God, don't you think that he will know your reasons and still love you?"

I think of those words whenever I struggle, and I feel not only love from an all-knowing God but also from a wise grandfather who knew exactly what to say when I needed him. So thanks Grandpa.

Grandparents are so important, and I feel lucky to still have each of my grandparents, regardless of distance. We are connected, and I feel it. I think, perhaps, that one of my greatest heartaches is that my kids do not get to see my parents enough. My parents love them so much, and every person on the planet would benefit from being loved so much. And I wish they could hug each other more or talk to each other more, but I am so grateful for the weeks we do spend together because the kids get to spend one on one time with them, and they are building memories that hopefully are filling their reserves for all the days we don't see them. I'm also grateful for technology. Marco Polo keeps the kids close to my parents and siblings, and I love it.

My kids really are the luckiest.