You're Gonna Miss This...

There's a well-know country song, sung by Trace Adkins, called, 'You're Gonna Miss This.'  

All four of our kids were home for their Christmas breaks recently. Our oldest, Braxton, is a teacher in St. Louis. His district was out for the holidays. Our three younger are still in Champaign completing their degrees. Blaize will soon be done with his Master's, while Brody and Bentley are working on their Bachelor's degrees. They had an even longer break than Braxton and were home for over a month. 

It's such a special time for us all. 

We reconnect as a family. 

We rekindle the closeness that we lose by living apart so many months of the year. 

It's a time I truly treasure. 

'You're Gonna Miss This.'

Our house comes to life with their arrival. It's a whirlwind from the second they come thru the door until they leave again.  Being empty-nesters for several years now, it's always a bit jarring when they come. 

 

I seem to forget how having six people in a house can be so different from having two. 

Lots of clothes lying around. 

The kitchen 'open' at all hours. 

My stove never clean. 

Running the dishwasher and doing the laundry on a daily basis. 

And the groceries we go through! How soon I forgot the sheer volume they eat. 

'You're Gonna Miss This.'

As the break wore on, I kept finding myself thinking of that song and some of the lyrics.

'You're gonna miss this. You're gonna want this back. You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast.'

Every parent feels it. We blink and our babies are grown. Our kids are adults and I miss the babies, the toddlers, and the young adults they once were. That won't change. 

'These are some good times, so take a good look around...you may not know it now...But, you're gonna miss this.'

For several years now, our kids friends from U of I come to stay with us over break. Tradition dictates they go to eat at Leo's Pizza and then come back for game night and an entire night of doing what kids in their 20's do. Blaring music. Games. Alcohol. Laughter. Inside jokes. Storytelling. Friendship. 

We love it.

Most years, we also have JHS alum and the token Routt alum, too. Old high school friends are always welcome, of course. 

'You're Gonna Miss This.'

This year, I realized that even though I had always thought of this song in terms of what I was missing because our kids were growing up, that this song applied to our kids and to their friends, as well. 

Blaize will graduate in May as will several of the kids who came to visit. Brody will graduate in December. Others will, too. 

Their lives are about to change. 

They will soon leave college behind and may end up in other parts of the country and won't be able to come see us during Christmas break again.

I snapped this picture as I was heading to bed that night. Amid all the laughter and smiles, I couldn't help but feel a tug at my heart. 

I knew what they would one day think as they looked back on this picture of that night. 

'You're Gonna Miss This.' 

To all these wonderful kids that Ed and I met by chance, I can't thank you enough for the joy you've brought to our kids and to us. 

Cherish these moments you have together this final semester...this final year. Your group will change as graduation comes and goes. 

'You're gonna want this back. You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast.' 

I pray you keep in touch with each other. You'll have other friends in your life, of course, and may not see each other as often.

But you'll never again have this group.

'These are some good times, so take a good look around...you may not know it now...But, you're gonna miss this.'

All the best to you. 

Don't forget Jacksonville and the Stewart family. 

I know you're forever etched in my memory. 

And I am certain...that I'm gonna miss this.

It is what it is. 

p