Our Wedding Picture, November 27, 1955

Picture taken a couple of years ago.

LIFE

By Edna Ingram, written in 2005, revised for this year. Next week is our 53rd wedding anniversary. This year it falls on Thanksgiving Day. A neat reminder of all we are thankful for.

Our children: Wendell 09/13/1956 Cara Lynn 05/28/58-10/02/1990

When our children were small and so sweet and precious, I thought that no time in life would or could be as good as this! They really were some of the best days of our lives!

Growing up rapidly.

Then they started growing up and their activities multiplied and we were on the road a lot trying to take in all their activities...and I thought that no time in life would ever be as good as this!

Well they were almost grown up and their values echoed our values and we were so proud of them and it was then that finally I began to know that there would be other good times. When they grew up and moved a few hundred miles away I would stand at the window and watch when we expected them to come. I could see headlights top the hill a couple of miles west of us and I would stand at the window and watch to see if the car would turn south at the next hill. Sometimes it did...sometimes it kept going east...but when the car came under the street lights a couple of blocks from our house, I could tell if it was their car and I would turn on the porch light for them. I would stand and watch for hours. It was about a 7 hour drive for them,  and  I would start watching at eleven o:clock just in case they got to leave a little earlier than planned. One night I stood and watched until 3 in the morning...then decided to go ahead and go to bed. That was the time plans had changed and they were not coming. It was easy to stand for hours watching, because by the time I knew that car was not theirs another would be topping the hill and I just had to wait to see if that one was them. It was wonderful standing and watching and anticipating their coming. And I thought that was a very good time in our lives.

Then the grandchildren came and what a grand time that was! We were busy going to their activities as they were growing up and it was so good to watch them as they excelled in lots of things they did. They are grown now and their values echo their parents' values, and when they come, we are not situated geographically where we can watch for their headlights...we just have to be content with their cars driving up in our driveway...but it seems that no time in life can top this either.

Now our son is going through all these phases in his life...the last one being the 'empty nest syndrome', which is the most distasteful of them all...but it has to be endured for the next phase to come around.

I'm excited for him! I'm excited for us! Every phase of life has its great moments, its griefs and its missions. We don't know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future and we are going to rush into it with faith in God, without fear, and with great anticipation...knowing that it holds a lot of things that we have never experienced before!