Two grandkids on the way

I DID NOT STAND UP in church on Sunday, National Grandparents Day, when the pastor asked all grandparents to stand.

My buddy sitting beside me nudged me, adding a go-ahead nod.

He knew that my first grandchild, a little boy, is alive and kicking inside my daughter – and due at Christmastime.

What he didn’t know because it wasn’t made public until that evening is that my son’s wife is carrying grandchild number two – due two and a half months later, in mid-March.

We might as well be having twins.

Our son and daughter-in-law live 15 minutes west.

Our daughter and son-in law live 10 minutes east.

That means my wife and I live in the bullseye between the two.

Autumn is upon us, a week away.

Winter Baby is coming.

Spring Baby is coming.

I told my mom, the future great-grandmother of my grandkids, that by summer this will be a happening place.

She said, “You mean a Happy Place.”

Between my kids and my wife, we’ve got five dogs within a 15-minute radius of my home office. God willing, we’ll be adding two children.

There was a time this year when I sat in my home office trying to write, while dog-sitting all five dogs – one of whom weighs in at 55 pounds (25 kg) and still thinks she’s a lap dog.

So I can’t help but wonder if someday next year I might find myself dictating a book while holding two babies with a dog on my lap and four dogs at my feet nagging me to throw the ball.

It’s possible. Thankfully.

Some might question the “Thankfully.”

A few days ago I was riding in the car with my son. We were going to his house to paint the walls in his basement. He’s finishing the basement to make more room for his growing family.

I said, “There’s something I want to tell you.”

“Okay,” he said.

“I know you sometimes think you’re taking advantage of me and your mom when you ask for our help. Or when we do stuff for you on our own. But there’s something you don’t understand. And I can’t say anything to help you understand. You’ll have to wait until March. That’s when you’ll understand.”

The love that a parent has for a child is the most powerful and protective of any I know.

It’s unique. There’s nothing to which I can compare it.

I can paint pictures, but they’re not enough.

The upstairs carpet is in. The pregnant daughter can’t lift any of the furniture to move it back up the stairs. Her parents decide to do it for her, as a surprise for her husband while he’s working. By the time they drag the last set of box springs up the stairs, they are dripping sweat. They are exhausted. And they are smiling.

For their grown kids, parents will cut grass, sand drywall, board the dogs, shovel snow, lay landscaping rocks, prune trees, and throw tarps over a leaking roof during a rainstorm.

I know. My parents did it for me. As best I can, I do it for my kids.

I think kids may think it’s a hassle for the parents.

They’ll probably always think that.

Until they have kids.

For more about parents and kids

• Heroes we can count on
• What I think when the kids come home
• Bless your kids dumbstruck
• Book: “Family,” Complete Bible Handbook, pages 123-125
• Video: How to Live in the Moment, Instead of Missing It

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