Grandmother: It Is

Now that I am done having children of my own, I have an overwhelming desire to be a grandma. I’m still young at 49 and neither of my twin daughters is married, but that doesn’t stop the need for children to love.

I think this desire flamed itself into being when I had a tubal ligation. After all, who really wants to become a parent again when your kids are about to graduate high school and you are 44 years old? My husband and I are two of those people. I was a relatively young mother — age 26 — and I want to be a relatively young grandmother. My mother was 44 when she became a grandmother for the first time and now she is still around to enjoy her great-grandkids as well.

So now my daughters are 23, the age at which I got married, and I am looking forward to the day when they will get married and give me those precious grandchildren. Marissa is close to being engaged, so that’s a start. Alanna, who desparetly wants her family to be complete by the time she is 30, doesn’t have a steady beau and I am turning into a monster.

I keep reminding Marissa of my goal to be a grandmother by the time I am 50. Except, well, that happens this September, so I guess my dream won’t come true quite that early. And ask Alanna how I am in an effort to get a boyfriend for her. I’m sure I embarrass her horribly and sometimes she tells me so. But in my defense, she is shy and I am not. She wants to marry an Air Force man and I happen to live on an Air Force base. How convenient. So now I take her out with me and introduce her to all the eligible young men I know. But that’s all  I do is introduce her. It’s up to her to do the rest. As my friend Megan always reminds me — God has a plan!

I know I’m being pushy, but heck this isn’t working out how I planned. Maybe I should relax and let God go to work. In the meantime, I have become a sort of base grandma. People ask me to watch their babies. Children call me various names from Grandma to Grammy Roni to Momo and I get an abundance of hugs and kisses whenever I see my little ones. But the problem is, after three years of watching children born and grow, I will move this year and some of them will move before me and I will have to start all over again at the next base.

But for now I am just going to enjoy the love I get from these children and wait for God to fulfill our plans in His time.