Only yesterday...

It seems like yesterday.  The phone rang Deb it's time and I jumped into my car to share the most beautiful experience of my first nephew coming into this world. Pam allowed me the gift of sharing in the experience of the boys coming into this world with Ken and her.  A gift that is treasured by couples and yet they loved me enough to share it with me.  A present that thank you will never express my gratitude.  Many of you know that I am not able to have children, but yet I do.  I did not feel the wiggles inside me or have the late night experiences of crying needing to be fed or just held, but I had all the good times!  I didn't get some of the hard stuff, because I'm the aunt of  the kids or  DeDe as they all call me. I get the fun stuff!  I get some of the confidential information and the words of warning  -  DeDe if you tell I'll have to get rid of you information that sometimes I would rather not know...but I love my babies.  Okay they aren't babies anymore, but as I told Vaughn just last week I don't care when you are sixty and I'm ....well you don't need to know that part you will still be our baby as will Kyle, Blake, Samantha, Sara, Sadie, and Holt...

I realized last night that even the kids are struggling with our first one graduating.  Samantha wrote this on facebook to her cousin ...

Man it seems like just yesterday we were little kids playing around even though we didn't see each other much! It's crazy that time has passed by so fast now ur a senior and going off to college! Ur the best cousin that anyone could ever have besides the times u pick on me bt I don't care! The night of ur graduation I'm going to burst in to tears and cry my eyes out! Bt I just want to tell u I love you and have a fantastic time at college! — with Vaughn Shapen and Debbie Covington.

I don't care who we are we struggle with change in our journeys and the words from Ecclesiastes 3 come to my mind right now almost daily...There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot...I've always wondered what got into Solomon with the whole book of Ecclesiastes, but I'm beginning to get it more with age.  We realize that indeed there is a time for everything for each of us to experience.  God's timing is so unique and special for each of us and we need to embrace every detail - even when it hurts!  The special times in our nephews and nieces journeys (or your kids) sometimes hurts, because we realize our time is not their time - just like God's timing with us.  His timing is not ours!  We each have our special unique time given to us by God to share with us and to share with Him uniquely made for each of us.

What I was reading Samantha's words to Vaughn I remembered  a special little league ballgame sitting in the bleachers with Vaughn, Kyle, and Samantha after the game where they were laughing, giggling, and having the time of their lives sharing it with their DeDe.  I never went anywhere without my camera during those days and the photos were lost in the fire, but the memory is stored right there in my head like it was yesterday.  Three little precious gifts from God with their blond hair and smiles shining for the whole world to watch as they shared a special moment of laughter and fun at the ball field and yesterday sitting at the banquet honoring Vaughn's baseball team we were still together laughing, hair a little darker for some of us, a little less hair for others, but we were still together laughing and giggling about the fun times.  I sat right there with them once again watching a special moment in our journey pass, but indeed the words came to mind that there is a time for everything...

I love each of you and words simply cannot tell you how much!

Sweet blessings,

DeDe