A Parent's Wishes

  As I try to move forward from Cassie's story and on to Jamie's (a feat if ever there was one for me), I wanted to take one final look back and share something I wrote that was partly inspired by a piece of advice given to Cass, and partly inspired by a beautiful little girl named Holly.
  You see, as I was plugging away on my first book, my cousin Jen (one of my favourite people in the world I might add), had her first baby. I unfortunately had missed her baby shower, and wanted to get her something special after Holly was born. But bought presents never seem special enough to me... not enough from the heart. So I wrote. I stood at work, on a very dull shift, doing my chores while pausing to write down verses as they came to me. I thought about other young parents I knew, the kinds of things that I know they thought and wanted for their children; and I thought about my Mom, and what she was probably thinking as she watched me grow. I know she worried about me as a baby... I have a journal she kept to prove it. And I thought about the perfect little bundle that Jen had just delivered. All of this thinking, combined with one of the lessons I learned from writing my book, culminated into this poem:

A Parent's Wishes (Holly's Poem)

The wishes of a parent

are not few or far between.

They start promptly at the news

of their arriving king or queen.

They rise with that first sonogram;

bubble up with tears of joy.

You wish they’ll have their Daddy’s eyes

that little girl or boy.

You spend those nine months wishing

to hear your new born baby’s cry,

to hold them closely in your arms

singing sweetest lullabies.

Then comes the time to bring them home,

you wonder how to act.

You find you’re wishing you’ll get through

with sanity intact.

You wish they wouldn’t grow

as they get bigger every day.

So you wish they’ll make you proud

with the things they’ll do and say.

You wish they’ll learn from your mistakes

and not make so many of their own,

but when they do you wish they’ll know

they can always come back home.

You stand and watch them slumber off

into a child’s sleep

and still you wish they’ll know the Lord

they asked their soul to keep.

You wish that when they’re grown

and off living their own life,

that they’ll meet that someone special

and become husband or wife.

And if they are so blessed

with children of their own one day,

you hope they’ll learn this lesson:

Why wish when you can pray?

   There are days, tough days, where I would like nothing better than to just give up and live a normal, monotonous life instead of striving for dreams that seem impossible... and then I think of this. I think of all the things Mom wished for me, prayed for me, in a heart that loved as only a parent could... and how God loves me the same way, only more, and has bigger dreams for me than I have for myself... And on those days, this is what gets me through. I hope it offers some truth to you.

<3 Kayla