The Joy They Bring

Written By Deborah Soltis

I love these visits from family—having little ones around again, with their energy, their curiosity, and the way they fill a house with life.

Suddenly, the room bursts with giggles and hugs and endless chatter.

Exploring the house.

Swimming in the pool.

The kitchen chairs become a choo-choo train.

Everything gets loud and messy.

And I find myself smiling.

Then, as young children eventually do, she simply runs out of gas.

I look at her sleeping, and suddenly I’m back in another house, another time, with three little boys of my own.

God, I miss those days.

I remember walks that could take an hour because there was always something to investigate, and others where we never made it past the driveway before jumping in rain puddles until we were soaked.

There were comments and questions I never could have predicted and somehow never forgot.

Like the morning I woke to a little blond boy straddling me in bed. It was barely six on a weekend morning, and still bleary with sleep, I saw two bright blue eyes looking down at me. “Mommy, can we have pancakes for breakfast?” A pause. “No. Scrambled eggs.” Another pause. “No. I think pancakes.” Apparently, the breakfast negotiations had begun.

Or the time one of the boys came home from the aquarium with Grandma and Grandpa so excited about the fish he’d seen that he drew a life-size aquarium on our foyer wall—in ballpoint pen. My first impulse was to scream. But then I saw his face, beaming with pride, and my anger simply disappeared. His joy was too big.

And then there was the night I sent my oldest back upstairs for what felt like the hundredth time. “Tyler, you should be in bed, sleeping!” He looked at me with the sweetest, most serious expression. “I was sleeping. I was sleeping so fast it woke me up.” And just like that, my frustration melted away. I smiled. And I followed him back upstairs.

Then I look up.

My husband is watching me, the little girl curled up on the sofa beside us. He gives me a knowing look.

Maybe that's the perfect bite.

The joy children bring with them. The way a little voice, a giggle, or a sleeping face can fill the present with happiness while stirring up a lifetime of beautiful memories.

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Deborah Soltis
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