17 Things From 17 Years: Post 13

#13: Becoming parents is one of the most redemptive things a person can ever experience.

One day, two starry-eyed individuals holding high ideals and lofty dreams join hands in marriage. Their future is bright with hope and the abilities of all their young knowledge. They dream of children and a family and, for many of them, those dreams become reality. The children come.

Long before their actual physical arrival, the redemptive process is begun. Their invisible presence brings swift change. It brings nausea and tears and moodiness and weariness and an upheaval of everything you had begun to know. As their presence becomes more visible, it brings aches and pains, inability to sleep, discomfort, fear of the unknown, worry, anxiousness and endless entertainment and the stirring of deep love. Those flutters, those kicks, those hiccups, those somersaults; they wrap us around tiny fingers.

And then, they come. They come, and they re-arrange your body, and your feelings, and your emotions, and your time and your sleep, and your energy, and your schedule and your ideals and your pursuits and your goals and your house.

They come, and they reveal shocking things about your levels of humility and selfishness and anger and mercy and creativity and frustration and embarrassment and patience and forgiveness and pride and endurance and flexibility and wisdom.

They come, and they wreck your ideas of perfection -- a clean house, well kept flowerbeds, a tidy schedule, a flourishing garden, a relaxing shopping trip, full nights of sleep, cheerfully eaten meals, pristine white walls, time with your partner, time for yourself...

And then, they turn around and teach you the things of importance -- slobbery kisses, sweet smiles at 2 a.m., long lashes on soft cheeks, chubby toes in rippling water, sticky fingers clasping your neck, shiny eyes over a story read, tears stopped with a kiss and a cuddle, whispered "I wuv yous", tearful "I'm sorrys", hearfelt "thank yous", hilarious drawings in heart melting notes, late night talks, salvation prayers, struggles shared, obedience observed......

They come, and they change you. If you allow it, they serve to redeem.