Can You See You?

All it took for me to understand the special kind of love that exists between a grandparent and a grandchild was to have two of my own. Life is funny that way, isn't it? There are feelings that we as humans can never fully understand until we experience them for ourselves. Like when I see my granddaughters in person after several months of being apart ... there was simply no way I could comprehend the joy that consumes me when they run and jump into my arms as they scream, "Ghee! Ghee! Ghee!" until Coraline did just that for the first time when I arrived at the airport in Canada when she was 2 years old. There is just nothing that compares to those particular love-filled greetings from her, and now from her little sister Amelie as well. The excitement in their eyes when they see me ... the way they wrap their little arms and legs around me and squeeze me as tightly as they can ... it really is an extra-special kind of love, friends.

My Canadian kiddos arrived for a short visit a week or so ago, and you can bet your last dime that I spent as much time as I possibly could with my two littles. We laughed and played and ate meals together and went for walks and fed baby goats, and I even helped Coraline catch her first fish. I learned early on after Matt and his little family moved to Canada when Coraline was only 5 months old how important it is that I make the most of every single moment I have with them when we're able to be together. It always amazes me how quickly the time races by during our visits and then how slowly it seems to drag along between them. I seriously don't think I could live if I couldn't Skype with my granddaughters each week, and I am beyond thankful for the technology that allows me to "see" and "hear" them on the computer screen. But ... there simply is no substitute for being with them in person ... holding their soft little hands when we cross the street, washing their messy little faces after we eat dinner, feeling their warm little heads on my shoulders as we snuggle in to read a book.There's most definitely no substitute for being with my little Canadians in person.

I took the day off from work on Tuesday and headed up to Becca's parents' house to spend the day with the girls before they had to leave on Wednesday morning to head back to Canada. Matt had called the night before and asked if I'd be willing to babysit the girls while he and Becca went to lunch with her brother and sister-in-law ... probably goes without saying that he didn't have to ask me twice on that one. After a fun morning of playing, eating a healthy lunch and putting Amelie down for a nap, Coraline and I stretched out on her makeshift mattress to read a couple of books so that she could have some quiet time and get a bit of rest, too. After the third book and the telling of several of her most-requested Ghee stories, I took off my glasses and sat them on the windowsill about my head.

"Coraline, how about I take off my glasses and rest my eyes for a few minutes and you tell me a story?" I asked as I giant yawn escaped my lips and I closed my eyes.

Before I could even lay my head on the pillow, however, Coraline planted her little hands on my cheeks and loudly announced, "No, Ghee! You cannot close your eyes for a few minutes! Open your eyes, Ghee!"

Of course I did what all good Ghees do when their precious little granddaughters tell them to do something ... I opened my eyes. I opened my eyes and saw Coraline's big blue ones only a few inches from mine, staring at me as if she was seeing me for the first time. And then she said something that was so profound, so deep, so far beyond anything I would have expected her to say. Coraline, with a quite serious look on her face, said something I haven't been able to shake loose from my mind ... something I'm sure will stay with me for as long as I live.

"Oh, Ghee," she said in a quiet voice as she looked intently into my eyes. "Ghee, I can see me in your eyes. Can you see you in my eyes, Ghee? Can you?

Tears welled in my eyes  as I nodded my head and whispered, "I sure can, baby girl ... I sure can." 

I'll leave you pondering the truth in my precious granddaughter's words ... I'll leave you contemplating the enormous lesson she taught me ... I'll leave you knowing that I so desperately want to be the person Coraline and Amelie see me to be.

I can see me in your eyes ... can you see you in mine?