Ever Want A Do-over?

If you had one opportunity to do something over in your life what would you choose? Would you choose to re-do your childhood or your teen years? How about a job you had or a love you lost? What would be the most important thing you’d like a second chance at doing again or even fixing?

I know I’d like to re-live my young married years. Motherhood was difficult at first. I was married when I was just eighteen and only nineteen when I had my first child. I had never changed a diaper or hardly held a baby growing up. I had never even babysat! It was a wide, wide learning curve for me. If it hadn’t been for my mother-in-law, I don’t know how I would have gotten through. She taught me everything about raising babies and kids.

There is something about holding that first child that brings a strange awakening inside of you. Looking into their scrunched up little faces, their delicate little toes and fingers, and all of a sudden it hits you—this little person is relying on me for everything! Good grief, now I have to be a real adult! A mother!

Yes, I’d re-do those years not because I think I was a failure at them, but because they were the happiest of my life. Watching my four children grow from little babes to grade school to graduates was amazing. All the bumps, bruises, hurts, and joys they brought were what made me who I am today. My husband and I had to make decisions that affected their lives on a daily basis. Was there enough money to pay the grocery bill this month? Could we make it one more week with the gas in the car? Could we afford to get those Christmas or birthday presents we wanted to give them? It was all a part of my kids growing up and my becoming a responsible wife and mother. Looking back now I realize how precious those days were.

So what would you like to do over? Anything you’d like to re-live or repair?