Stages of Life

Life flies by at an amazingly quick pace, but for the most part, I haven't really felt "old" until this summer. Especially yesterday. There is no place like your OB-GYN's waiting room to make a 34 year old woman feel old. I sat there and watched as pregnant mom after pregnant mom walked into the room, and wow, did they look young. And the men (boys) they dragged (literally, in some cases) with them looked even younger. I'm hoping they weren't all sixteen like it seemed, but regardless of their actual ages, it made me look back over the stages of life that we go through.

As children we counted the days until every birthday, longing to grow up, desperately wanting to go to elementary school, then to middle school, and to high school. We couldn't wait until we could drive, date, go to prom, and then graduate. Then we would dream about college, a job, getting married, and having kids.

On of my first thoughts in that waiting room was how thankful I was that I wasn't pregnant, carrying a baby seat, or hoisting a 13 month old on my hip. But then I thought...what is the next "big thing" in life that I am dreaming about? At this point my life, what milestone am I looking forward to?

A few minutes later I was in the doctor's office going over my medical history with the doctor. The list was lengthy: Habitual Aborter (which means 'miscarriages' for the non-medical people), possible PCOS, multiple D&C's, Ectopic Surgery, gallbladder problems, Polycystic Liver Disease, mother with breast cancer, father with diabetes and high blood pressure. Suddenly my next "big thing" to dream about became obvious -- NOT DYING! I felt OLD.

I realized at that moment that I had officially entered the stage of life that begins when one is finished having children, and ends with.....uhhhh....retirement? If you're lucky.

The good news is, I feel as if I can say that and not be depressed about it. I'm excited for this stage of life. I have been blessed to be able to experience everything on my original "dream" list. There may have been a few bumps along the way, but I was able to grow because of each bump (or mountain) we had to travel over. I have no idea what God has in store for this stage of my life, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

Even if it means I have to get OLD in the process.