For my family, grandparents are the people that we know we can count on. Growing up, I had the pleasure of having three living grandparents. My husband had four living grandparents for about 30 years of his life! Two of his grandparents have recently passed, however, his two living grandparents are still alive and well…they are also still married! How crazy is that??
Our grandparents were like our parents, but better! They gave us snack money behind our parents back. They gave us desserts just because. When we were sick, they would wait on us hand and foot, making us feel like royalty!
Now that we have a son of our own, we see the same patterns in love, treats, and the royal treatment. We recognize it, and allow it because that’s what grandparents are there for!
If you’ve been following my posts, you are aware that my son Azariah spent the majority of his summer with his grandparents gaining life experiences. Raising kids truly does take a village, as you’ll see.
Grandparents Stepping In and Family Stepping Up
One morning while Azariah was with his grandparents (four hours away), he woke up in the middle of the night with tummy issues and a fever. My in-laws handled the situation while filling us in. I called the pediatrician for instructions since he was so far away. I don’t want to go into details on how sick he was, but my in-laws ended up having to take Azariah to an urgent care facility the next morning.
As soon as that happened, my husband and I left work! I mean, our bosses were like what are you still doing here?! We drove so fast, I can’t remember anything from that drive. Halfway on the drive, my in-laws let us know they were being discharged. My mom was communicating with them as well to fill us in. My brother-in-law (who is 12) was hustling to pack himself a bag and Azariah’s bag. My mother-in-law was spending every minute with Azariah. My father-in-law was hustling to pack a bag for himself and my mother-in-law.
My in-laws were heading our way with Azariah and we were heading to meet them in the middle. Then we found out the doctor had given Azariah a paper prescription — that’s a whole other story for another day — and we had a mild panic attack. How is Azariah going to get his medicine tonight? How long will it take to get him the meds? Who can get the meds?
Here’s where our village came into play. My husband’s best friend just so happens to be a pharmacist, so my husband gets on the phone with him and tries to find a solution. Once we found out that H-E-B will transfer prescriptions, life got easier….until we realized, we were still hours away from home and the pharmacy would be closed by then! As fate would have it, my sister-in-law was actually in town, and she and her husband stepped up to the plate to make arrangements for getting Azariah’s medicine while we were getting Azariah.
We finally met up, and Azariah was sick as a dog, but we had our whole world in our hands.
We had parents who were hustling to get Azariah seen by a doctor. We had family members to help us get the medicine we needed. Not one person made us feel like we owed them something. Not one person made us feel like we were a burden.
In that scary moment, we were so thankful to have a village.
In that moment, we saw how much our parents loved our child. We saw how much our families loved our child.
In that moment, we were able to see what our family saw: an innocent child loving his grandparents and his grandparents loving him back.
It was almost like taking a peek into the window of my son’s life with his grandparents. It was a beautiful image that I will never forget.
To my family who is always willing to lend a hand, know that we see you and we are thankful. To the grandparents, we see you too! And yes, you can give Azariah ice cream or a paleta before dinner.
