For Traveling Mercies, Thanks Be to God

Since about age thirteen my life has centered on children, babies, baby girls in my case. Growing up I always wanted a baby sister. Parker had a baby sister, Philip had a baby sister, life should allot me a baby sister. We did very well actually with my mother’s two sisters having baby girls who from time to time were brought over from Pensacola to stay with us for a weekend, or a week, or even two to three weeks. My part in their care included doing everything for them, even proprietarily so, a cherished part of growing up years. Before Linda and I married, we were agreed on four children, and the sooner the better for me. To my lifelong joy, Malinda arrived the week of our first anniversary, and life has been blessed ever since. Malinda, Joe, Tassy.

As life goes on of course, one finds out that sons and grandsons are beloved just as daughters and granddaughters, and this has been one of my wondrous lessons of life. So, Nicholas, Ray.

Not looked forward to, was always the day and stage of life when there would no longer be a child at home to dote on. No baby needing a bottle, or changing, or snuggling, or reading a story at bedtime. Or telling, as in “Tell me about when you were a little boy.” My darkest hour, no it lasted an eon, began when Tass went away to college in Virginia, nearly a thousand miles away. As she grew up and I had to let her go, even to university in England, I knew the edge of despair, as perhaps many doting fathers do. But then when Tass was twenty, Malinda told us she was pregnant. With a girl. She and her husband divorced some six months before the baby was born, and my heart took over. Total love and absolute ownership. 

The dark, chill, early January morning that Kristen was born, Joy laid her in my arms and my heart was gone, utterly besotted! Another little girl to adore! When she was still very tiny, I was allowed to adopt her as my very own. Which is why when people ask us, “How many children do you have?” people raise their eyebrows when I answer, “Linda has three, I have four.”

She’s a college freshman now. When she was in high school I mentored her driving lessons, hours every day, total patience to help her have confidence and develop skill. She’s an excellent driver. But when she’s on the road between PC and Atlanta I have a day in the fires of Hell, don’t I. Monday morning, a day earlier than expected, she had her last class and drove home, arriving safely for the Thanksgiving holidays, surprising me completely and saving me from Tuesday in Sheol! Home safe, thanks be to God.

Linda and I leave in a few minutes to drive to Tallahassee, where two more granddaughters, Caroline and Charlotte, are looking forward to our attending Grandparents‘ Day at Holy Comforter Episcopal School. 

For traveling mercies, thanks be to God.

Papa in +Time