The other day, I was sitting the lawyers’ lounge at one of the local courthouses, chatting and joking around with friends and colleagues after a morning in bail court when I suddenly remembered that I’d not turned on my cellphone after coming out of the courtroom.
No sooner was the little gizmo was up and running than I received that tell-tale sound and vibrating buzz which heralds the arrival of a new text message.
It was from my daughter, Exhibit One. “Picked up my diploma today!!”
I immediately sent her a reply “Mazel tov!” text message telling her how proud I was of her.
Sitting there, I took a deep breath as the moment washed over me. Four years of university. Four years of high school. Eleven years of Hebrew elementary day school, including nursery, junior kindergarten and senior kindergarten.
Surely it was only a couple of years ago that I stood on the sidewalk outside the Hamilton Hebrew Academy waiting to pick up my little girl from kindergarten.
Surely it was only a few years ago that I stood in a basement apartment in Montreal, holding my three-week old daughter at three in the morning, humming an old Fats Waller tune to get her to sleep after I changed her diaper.
Next week, she flies off for her second trip to Israel this summer.
In September, she turns twenty-two.
My thoughts then turned to my son, Exhibit Two. A real mensch. A genuinely good young man – kind, sweet, generous, big-hearted, loving, tall, smart, handsome. In two years, he will graduate university as well. He has far exceeded all of my hopes and expectations for him. I could not be prouder of him.
I am overcome with how truly lucky I am to have such wonderful kids.
May G-d continue to bless my children, now and always.
It is through our children that we realize how truly blessed we have been. Congratulations to Exhibit One! I’m sure Exhibit Two will do just as well in making you proud. Go ahead….. pop your buttons! Acorns do not fall too far from the tree! (Squirrels may carry them to far off lands, but they will always be oaks!)
bunnynoah: We lucked out having such good kids. Every day in court I see teenagers and young adults in jail and in all kinds of trouble. If nothing else, my job makes me thank G-d for how well our kids have turned out. Even though one of them continually mocks me for how slowly I read. And one criticizes me for not making her french toast quickly enough and not taking her swimming often enough. And one developed a rare Elvis Presley phobia and turned into a Diet Nazi. And one was a vampyre from the day she was born, not sleeping at night for the first few years unless she was holding on to my ear.
On second thought, they’re all a big pain in the tush! 😉
LOL!! Yes, they are a pain in the tush…. but they are still better than most as you well know! 😀