They come to our lives long waited or uninvited and bring joy and sleepless nights.

First smile and first word, first step and first scratch. First day at school and some time first disappointment. They break our hearts and make us cry and it hurts …bad, and they make us proud and give us satisfaction incomparable with any other. They grow up and we grow…old with them, and they have their own kids and gray hair, but for us they always will be our babies. We will keep seeing their first smile, step, skinned knee and we always will try to protect them from mistakes and pain, even when they are adults and they have their own families and children to take care of and protect.

Our children; gray-haired and sometime troubled they are still our babies.

I work for a local power company and 70 % of the time, we are dealing with people who can’t pay their bills, trying to help them.

This morning a woman who looked my age or bit older came to my desk and giving me a piece of paper with name and address on it said, that she wants to make a payment on this account. I looked at the account, it belong to a young man at the same age as my daughter. Seemed like they were having some problems; they have been paying always on time and nothing for the last two mounts. I asked her how much she wants to pay and she gave me an amount about a quarter of what was necessary to avoid disconnection. I told her that this is not enough and asked her how she is related to the young men. She told me that she is his aunt. She said, "He is in the hospital right now, with his four years old son who has leukemia. The doctors told them that the cancer is in remission right now. He has been on chemotherapy for the last two years and will have to stay on it for one more year. Because of the radiation, his immune system is very weak. His blood count was very low for the last three weeks so he had to stay in the hospital and his daddy is with him. His mother is eight mounts pregnant and they are hoping that the new baby could be a donor for his brother" She said that this is the reason why they were behind on their bills and she is trying to help them with something.

By the time she finished saying that, we both were crying. I told her that she could pay as much as she can and to tell them not to worry about the bill right now, that their power will stay on. She asked me to pray for them and left.

We work together with local churches and organizations helping people in need and I called one of the churches. Explained this young family situation, and asked if they can help them with anything. The pastor confirmed that they will pay the bill and will send some presents for the child after I gave the address.

As I said earlier, this young man is my daughter's age. For me he is still a child himself.

My daughter called two weeks ago squalling that she lost her ferret and this boy has to take care of family and a child with deadly decease. At his age, he is supposed to be happy and carefree not with burden like this. I was seeing my little girl's trusting smile, her littler fingers holding my thumb and praying, "God please don’t let these kids hurt. Take their pain away".

Helping them today, I was helping my girl, because I love her so much.

Please, say a prayer for little Dillon and his parents Will and Kim.

Because you love your children.

Prayers going up! And thank you, powergirl. You are that family's own personal angel. Are you hiding wings under that sweater?

How do I begin? You saved my life. I was wandering, listless, with no point and no direction. One night of endless partying with a "friend with benefits" and you were there.

At first I was scared. What am I going to do? How will I take care of you? But the friend did not abandon us, and we became your parents.

And oh, how I was changed. I became your Mom. And you were my everything. From the moment I first held your warm, still wet, squiggly little body and our eyes met, it was over for me. Pain? What pain?

And you grew. And I grew, too. You taught me that it was possible to have a piece of my heart running around, playing in the sandbox, jumping off the swings, going to school, and still survive. Your brothers came, but you were the one who taught me how.

And the magic you saw in the world! All the possibilities that I had forgotten about...you reminded me. You made me young and hopeful again.

And then I blinked. And you were grown. First prom, driver's license, first ticket, experiences I never knew about until later, by sheer luck and accident. Your brothers will both have these same experiences, but I am seasoned, so it will not be such a shock.

And now, you are gone, a man. Oh, you still come home occasionally when your job permits, to visit. But your home and your life is elsewhere now. You belong to the Air Force and I miss us. I miss your smile, the easy conversations, the warm hugs, the everyday sharing of our lives.

To untie these apron strings....should be easier than it is. I worry. I fret. I want to protect you from all things evil. But I can't. That isn't my job anymore. Your life must be shaped by bad experiences as well as good. All I can do is support from afar and love you so much it hurts.

But please remember, my love. You still own a piece of my heart, you are still a part of me. That will never change. I will be older and grayer, and you will have a family of your own. Someday you, too, will understand what it is like to worry and fret and hope and pray that everyday, a little piece of your heart stays protected and knows how very much it is loved.

A couple of days ago you commented on the lack of entries. I confess I haven't contributed all week: the topics are just too damn hard, and you guys are just too damn good. I have something on mature love that I may or may not finish this weekend. As for writing about love of a parent for a child, you might as well ask me to write about breathing.

I find that if I read everyone else's posts first, I often lose my nerve to post, especially about something personal like love. I post first and read later. Then if I decide my post is too far below the standard set by the others, I delete it.

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