Congratulations, your life was just enriched ten-fold!
Finally, with the grandbabies (5 of them), I found, “the joy of motherhood”.
Being a mother was a damned hard job, I knew everything I said and did would affect my offspring, possibly forever.
With the grandbabies, I can skip doing the dishes and go out and make mud pies! The youngest (5 yo) was over Thursday night and we went out to play in the dirt planting tomatoes and admiring birds.
Last night she and Grandpa sat on the couch while her mother and I got dinner together. They were giggling (yes, crusty old grandpa giggles with her) so we listened to see what they were up to. Near as I could tell, they were passing words back and forth and the other had to make a rhyme. When she’d get stuck, he’d whisper a rhyming word to her, she’d giggle and shout out the rhyme, which made him chuckle. They high-fived and it was his turn. All of which made us laugh.
Sounds crazy, but such a simple thing was amazing. All of the worries of the day melt away and life is good.
Congrats!
Your story made me think of something I heard long ago, when I was too young to understand it.
“Grandchildren are the final installment, the PAID IN FULL, that the good Lord gives you.”
I heard it from a lady who was in her 60’s, at a restaurant I worked at when I was still in high school.
Suddenly...I “get it.” :)