It Won't Be Like This For Long

We took Chloe to The Grand Ole Opry Tuesday night. I think she had a great time. I know Greg and I did. She loves country music and knows all the words to almost all songs. Sometimes when we are listening and I know a bad word is coming up I will sing over it a different word like heck for hell or deer for beer. The other day there was a song on and the words were "whiskey bent and hell bound." Chloe was trying to be a good girl and change the words so it wouldn't be as bad so she sang " beer bent and heck bound!' Bless her heart. Kaleb was running around the house the other day singing "save a horse, ride a cowboy!" I really had a hard time trying to tell him why he shouldn't sing it!!
Now Karlie on the other hand thinks we are terrible for singing and listening to country music. She is such a good girl and I often have to remind her that she is not their mother. There is a song (country music ) called It Won't Be Like This For Long. When I listen to it, I am reminded how I was told by so many people that "this baby stage" wouldn't last long. I thought "how long is long?" It seems likes yesterday that Karlie was born and Greg was telling my how much hair she had. I remember telling her the first time I held her that I would never spank her, never make her go to school and never make her wear a bra! haha. She had her spankings when she was little, she has made it through her first year of middle school and yes, she has to wear those thingies. It sure is hard watching her grow up and what sometimes feels" away" from me. I was thinking last night about how we took her to wal mart in Fort Payne once and I had the kid leash on her. It was on her wrist and I was holding the other end. I turned around and she had pulled it off her wrist and was walking around beside me. Once at the wal mart in Athens, she was singing The B I B L E that's NOT the book for me. AND...Jesus...don't love me, Jesus don't love me. I just about died!!! Then, two days ago we were at wal mart getting all her "Hygeine" and "undergarments" that I told her she never had to wear! She was getting ready to go to Maine for 3 weeks. I was in tears thinking what am I doing, and what happened to my leash and little wild child singing her songs?? She sure has grown up fast. But.....I am thankful that she has Jesus in her heart and she is a very independent (in a good way) young lady.
The night before she went to Maine the two of us were laying out on the deck looking up at the stars and trying to make letters with our legs. Mine would not bend of course as good as hers! ha. We were laughing, kissing, hugging each other and telling each other how much we loved each other!! I will always remember that night!! But... I realize it wont be like this for long. That is what is so hard. I was ready for the baby stage to come to an end so to speak but not for this stage to end. Makes me sad.
So....for 2 weeks she will be in Maine doing Mission work which makes me so proud of her. I will be going there in 2 weeks leaving Chloe and Kaleb for a week to serve with a team from our church and to work along side Karlie .She will be the pro by the time I get there. I hope I will be okay while she is gone. I will just have to remind myself it won't be like this for long!!!!