An aha moment

It is about 6:30 am and sounds of laughter fill my car.  Who can be laughing this early in the morning?  Not me, it is cold, I have not had coffee and I can barely find the energy to make the 6 mile drive.  But not everyone shares in my "it's way to early to be happy" state of mind.  Girlish laughter and soft whispers fill the early morning silence.  I'm driving my daughter and her friend to track practice.  No doubt the girls are probably discussing boys!  Ugghhh.  My baby is talking about boys!  This can't be... isn't she still in diapers?!?

I'm having one of those moments like in the movie Father of the Bride.  In the scene where they are sitting at the dinner table and his daughter utters the words "we're getting married."  Only he is not seeing his grown daughter announce this, he is seeing her as a child, a baby almost.  I look into the rearview mirror and in the soft glow from the light of her iPhone I see my baby.  I recall when the sounds coming from the rear seat were the happy coos of an infant, the barely formed words of a precious little girl just learning how to speak.  Then I catch her eyes, those beautiful eyes that stole my heart the moment she first opened them.  As if that were not enough, I see her smile, bright and consuming her face.  A smile that is contagious.  And I simply breathe and thank God that she is mine.

She is growing up and it seems as if all of these changes happened overnight.  So, I realize it is not to early in the morning to be laughing with friends or driving to track practice.  For I just had an aha moment... this is life and it is happening right before my eyes, in the dark of this cold winter morning.  This is a precious moment that I am spending with my little girl in a lifetime that passes way to quickly.  And I'm so blessed that my wonderful daughter reminds me of that in ways that she'll never even realize (until she has a child of her own.)

Now, if I could just find a way to put the boys on hold for a while longer!!  ;-)

~K