Where Does the Time Go?

This weekend we celebrated the birthday of my oldest son, who will be turning 20 years old this week.

Wow. That’s all I can say. My son is turning 20!

Okay, you know me better than that. I just can’t stop there. What I’m really thinking is…where the heck does the time go? How does it slip through our fingers so quickly?

It really doesn’t seem like 20 years ago as I can clearly remember the day he was born. Actually, I also remember the day he was supposed to be born, which was 20 years ago today. It was the day of the President’s Inauguration and it also became the day we were visited by the Inauguration Day storm. It was a devastating storm and apparently only the Columbus Day storm of 1962 was able to exceed its violence.

My husband and I were at the hospital and I had already been checked in, placed in my room, in a hospital bed and was very prepared to move ahead with the birth of my first born son. Ah, well, Mother Nature had it planned another way. The storm hit, trees toppled, the power went out in the hospital and after running the facility off generators, we were told to go home because we were not considered an emergency. My contractions were minimal and my water had not broken so we were sent on our way.

You can only imagine how we felt when we had to leave that place with no baby in our arms.

And then we walked outside.

Again, wow.

We had no clue how bad the storm had been after having been inside the hospital for some time. We were amazed at the destruction and the force of the winds still at work. Yes, it was an amazing storm which left us with no baby and no power but eventually we did return to the hospital a few days later where we were soon greeted by the cutest newborn boy I had ever seen.

And life goes on from there…

I remember how little he seemed. And then how chunky he got. How cute he looked when he smiled for the first time. The first steps he took. The Woody Woodpecker laugh he had when he was learning to really laugh hard at something that tickled his funny bone. The first time he actually enjoyed a Disney movie with me and I was in heaven to finally have someone enjoy watching cartoons with me. Who can forget the first day of school? Not me. You really don’t want to let them go but you can’t help the excitement you feel as you watch them enjoy their newest experience. T-ball when he was only four years old turned into Babe Ruth and Little League. Then there were many hours of butt time on bleachers as we sat through numerous basketball and football games over most of his teenage life. Middle school and high school included more memories than I can count and many, many memories he’ll always cherish with his friends.

Twenty years ago, I would not have even been able to guess what I’d feel right now. It is a bit surreal. How can it seem just like yesterday when we were staring in awe at this perfect little person who would change our lives forever? And now…Poof! Suddenly this little 8 pound 14 ounce baby (not so little, huh?) is a grown up preparing himself for his own career, his own family, his own life.

It is an amazing thing, how fast time flies by. You really have to enjoy the time you have with your loved ones when you can because the moments are just mere particles in time that will easily slip by you if you don’t grab them when you have the chance. And as we gratefully and joyfully celebrate another birthday with our son, we try not to think about the passage of time because before we know it, we’ll be celebrating his next birthday soon enough.