The Best Years of My Life??

A wise woman(my Mother)once told me that these years of raising children will be the best years of my life.  I had my doubts, you know given the countless sleepless nights due to colic, acid reflux, teething and dealing with the heart issues of our daughter.  Then there was surviving two toddlers going through the terrible twos and one going through the tumultuous threes(and a daughter just entering the tumultuous threes, of which I'm reminded of everyday).  How can these be the best years of my life?!  Then I started remembering my teens years, those certainly weren't the best years of my life.  They were awkward and I didn't like myself, ever.  When I entered adulthood, I thought they were the best years of my life, but in hind sight, they were not.  With adulthood, it's a struggle to find yourself and you fight with everyone around you because you are trying to find yourself and you feel like the adults in your life are trying to hold you back.  Its a confusing time, much like being a teenager.  Everything you know has changed and the future is staring you in the face.  It's scary!  You find that its a struggle to pay the bills on minimum wage and still maintain College or in my case, Beauty School.  It's a rough transitional time.

Onto my point, these are the best years of my life.  Even though my kids can drive me absolutely bonkers on any given day and run me until I'm ragged, they fill me with fulfillment.  There is no joy like the joy you get from seeing a look of pure happiness on your child's face.  At times I think it would be easier to work than stay home with them, but then I start thinking of all the things that I would miss if I did go back to work and it far out weighs the stresses of being home.  Just when you think you can't take anymore, they have these moments that just make you feel all warm inside and make you feel like you can keep going.  I find it strange after all the years that I wasn't close with my Grandma B, but how we can now talk and I now have a love for her that I didn't find before.  In these days that she is losing her memories, we have great conversations and it kind of breaks my heart a little to know that she won't remember them, so I have to remember for the both of us.  This last weekend we had a brief visit and she enjoyed seeing the kids, as she always does.  We were talking and she says to me, "These will be the best years of your life."  It resonated with me!  I tell myself this everyday, to remind myself that despite the stresses, I will look back on the days of raising my kids and know that these were, the best years of my life.  Words of wisdom to remember.  Enjoy each day we spend with our little ones because it will all be over in a flash even though now it feels like forever.  These are the BEST years of my life and I look forward to many more while my children grow!