#27: I am thankful for grandparents.

I am fortunate to have known all of my grandparents. Although they have all moved on and out of this mortal life now, each of them was special. But today, I am thankful for my children's grandparents. It is special to me that not only do my kids have two sets of wonderful grandparents who love and teach love to my children, but that my children have had opportunity to get to know all four of their grandparents more than just through pictures.

But today, I am even more thankful for those grandparents who aren't really my children's grandparents, but are grandparents to my children anyway. Where I serve as pastor, there are several couples who fill the void of grandparenthood that is left by geographical distance from their "biological" grands.When it is only possible for our kids to be with their grands only once or twice (maybe) a year because of the physical distance and cost of travel, and when they are surrounded by friends whose grands live around the corner, down the street, or at most a two-hour drive away, it is a blessing to have these "surrogate" grands living near enough to provide that loving touch. Just yesterday, we were in need of grandparents to watch the children for an extended time while the Blushing Bride and I participated in an all day event (that would have seemed three to four times longer for both us and the kids had they been forced to come with us), and one of the couples from our church stepped in. (Specific thanks to D & J.)

There are enough of these couples in our church family that it is sometimes difficult to decide which grands to ask to watch the kids in an emergency or for a date night. We try to spread it around enough so that no one gets overworked and no one misses a turn. What makes this service so great for our family is that most of these couples are actual grands whose time is monopolized by their personal bundles of joy--and they take time to love our kids, too! Of course, often they try to find times when they will be entertaining their own grandchildren to have ours brood over so all the little children will entertain each other. What a service.

For this I am thankful.