No, you don't want time to stop...

Sometimes I think I do, for my babies...

Because they are taller than me... half of them are already taller than me!

And smarter! They are smarter than me, half of them know more than I do.

Wasn't it yesterday they all fit on my lap and thought I was the smartest, prettiest lady in the world and they would love me the most forever...

Okay, that's going a little momma crazy--but sometimes I feel that way... maybe more than I want to admit. It just goes by so fast. So so so fast. And I'm not ready for them to be grown.

My kids range from 5 to 17. Thoughts of my oldest leaving my home and not living with me anymore hit me on a daily basis and I really--REALLY don't like it. I'm not ready for this stage of life. And I often wish for time to slow down or to stop all together. Just let me keep them--like this--a little longer.

And then I remember. I am the luckiest--most blessed person on the planet. I have FOUR healthy, happy, beautiful, intelligent, wonderful kids and I am gonna ask for more? For time... to stop and to allow to me keep them like this a little longer?

And really, that isn't what I want.

Sometimes I just think I do.

I work with these beautiful special needs adults each week. They are the loveliest people and I feel so blessed and so grateful to know them and to work with them. Last semester in my English class we had to write four papers. We picked one topic and then we studied, researched, and worked to write four different types of papers on our one topic until we had developed a thesis and a project for this topic. My topic- Everyone Deserves a Voice. It was concerning my precious special needs friends and their voices being heard. I learned so very much. More than I thought I would. And this brings me to my point...

One thing I learned in an interview I conducted struck me very hard. I have to remind myself of this whenever I start pining for my children to stay little a little longer. One of the most difficult things for parents of special needs children is (obviously depending on the disability and severity) there comes a point when their child stops progressing. They don't get to see their child graduate from college, work, get married, become a parent, a grandparent--and whatever else in life they choose to do, because really we never stop growing. Rather, the progression of their child has an end point. That's not to say they can't experience and live and try new things, but for some, not all, life-progression isn't in the cards.

Progression, growing, moving on is such a gift.

One we take for granted at times.

And as much as I fear the change approaching us, it's a gift I am so thankful to have, for myself and my children.