A toast to all parents!

My sister had her 3rd child this week, and Chris and I had the pleasure of taking care of Asaiah, 9 years old, and Porter, 15 months old, for 3 days. Chris and I love them both, as well as the 9 nieces and nephews his siblings have added to the family, but I'll tell you our appreciation for parents went way up this week. Yes I know it's different when they are your own and you kinda grown into life together, but boy howdy we were glad to pass them back to their parents and get back to the peace and quiet of our "normal" life. I suppose it didn't help that we got a call as we were headed to bed on Monday eve. Midnight found us at the hospital and at 1:30, just before the crabbies set in we decided to take the kids home, where we arrived at 3am. Only to be woken by their dog (oh did I mention we had LuLu as well???) at 3:30 and 5:30 and my mother at 8:30 to tell us Justine Raquel Montoya Randell had arrived at 5:30. And then, Porter was up. She was so tired she went into Energizer bunny mode. Needless to say we all took naps on Tuesday.
When Asiaha was growing up, we spent a lot of time with he and Ang. Now that she's married and living over an hour away, we haven't spent as much time with Asaiah or with Porter. It was good to connect and to be a part of their lives. I hope we are connected to Justine in the same way.