Taller Every Day

Every year about this time, I take our sons to the doctor. This week, we went as I bounced from one examination room to the other, asking questions, listening to answers, and letting our sons do most of the talking.

For once, I remembered to print and bring the school forms. I even filled them out in advance, checking box after box, explaining what needed to be explained, and feeling grateful that the information on the forms is relatively boring.

I can’t say that I look forward to going to the doctor, but I love the idea of checking in once a year to reflect on where we are, what our sons have achieved, and how they are doing.

I will always treasure the years when our sons were young. I also love this time when they aren’t toddlers who are bouncing off the walls in the waiting room, when they can answer the doctor’s questions themselves, and when they can get a vaccine they’re due for—and not even blink.

I’m always fascinated—and amazed—to see how our children are growing. Our older son surpassed my height a couple of years ago, but our younger son is taller than I am now, too. Somehow, every time we go to the doctor, he has grown still more, inching up and up and up. This was his first well-child visit where he was taller than I am, and seeing those numbers scrawled on the little pink paper square really brought it home.

In just a couple of years, our older son will technically be an adult, and his younger brother will be right behind him. Time is flying. I’m grateful to be here to see them growing taller and stronger and more independent. I wouldn’t want it any other way. But sometimes it takes my breath away that this is where we are. How did we get here so quickly? And how are our own lives flying by, too?

“Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence,” St. Augustine said.

I don’t know all that our children will grow to be. I can’t guess what they will encounter in life. I don’t know everything they will achieve. I have no idea what their struggles and victories will be. I don’t even know how tall they will be when they finish growing. But I love the people they are—and the people they will be.

And I have faith that God is with us through all of it, loving us fully, and wanting us to be all that we can be to complete his mission for us on earth.

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