Raising Kids is Like Raising Chickens--Love Unstoppable

So, my kids and I are the proud parents of five adorable, tweeting, fluff balls! My oldest daughter and her friend talked me into buying two baby chicks on Tuesday. We started out with two. But we found out that you need more than two chicks for them to be healthy grown-up chickens. So, by Wednesday, we had five baby chicks.

The chicks are so cute that we have spent all our time obsessing over them. We haven't cared that they tweet through the night and that they're up at dawn, tweeting some more. Yesterday, the little black one, named Scarlet/Oreo, put its wing around the yellow chicky named Jacq. They cuddled in the corner of their box and we were beside ourselves!

 

Okay, so, the crazy thing is...we know these cute, adorable chicks are going to grow up and someday be BIG chickens. We know they aren't going to be cute and adorable forever. But right now, we don't care because we're in the honeymoon phase of raising chicks. We're caught up in the slow motion movie in our head where we're frolicking through the meadow with baby chicks running behind us. Can you see it, too?

Sadly, these babies are not going to be irresistible, tweeting fluff balls forever. In fact, I've never thought of big chickens as cute or adorable, or really anything. So, when does this "honeymoon so in love with baby chicks phase" wear off?

 

Raising chicks is just like raising kids. First, God gives you the "honeymoon phase." You fall in love with these helpless, adorable, fuzzy-headed, precious babies, whose burps are even cute. You love them so much your heart hurts. But then, when they're two, they paint your wall with blue nail polish (daughter #3). And when they're eight they play soccer in the house and break your favorite glass candy jar (son #1). Then when they're 16 they drive into a parked car at the grocery store (hasn't happened, yet, but probably will). Then when they're 21, they call you and say, "Mom, I've just eloped." (This happened recently to a friend of mine and part of her was beside herself and the other part was okay. She told me, "All I said was, 'I'm here for you when you need me.'" Yikes! Cute or adorable "chicks" do grow up to do not so cute things!

 

So, why do we have "chicks" in the first place? Why doesn't God warn us that raising "baby chicks" can be hazardous to our well being? And why doesn't he warn us that we're only going to hold them long enough to turn around and let them go? Because...God made the love we have for our children. He made it strong enough to withstand earthquakes, tornadoes, and tsunamis. He knows, with His love, we can see our children through anything. That love we felt for them as "baby chicks" is unstoppable.

 

As I hold this tiny, yellow, baby chick up against me, I know it won't be much longer and it will be too big to hold. The day will come, all to quickly, when I will need to let it go. So...I'm going to love these baby chicks into chicken-hood. I'm going to relish in the memories of holding them, watching over them, worrying about them, and tending to their needs. And then I'm going to trust God to help me to let them go.

P.S. Will you remind me I wrote this when my daughters goes off to college? And when my son goes on a mission? And when my youngest daughter goes to kindergarten? And when...

"A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on." -
-Carl Sandburg