Taking Your Kids’ Kids – Part Two

Yesterday, I began a series of posts challenging grandparents, who are able, to take their kids’ kids for a while.

Reason number one? It allows for marriage renewal for your grand-kid’s parents.

Second, taking your kids’ kids allows for deep layers of love.

Let me explain.

I have a daughter we adopted when she was four. [Side note: one year – during “Cousin’s Camp” – Katie and I went to Ethiopia to bring her home.] We don’t know much at all about the first four years of her life. We imagine they weren’t fun. At the very least, we know they weren’t what any infant, baby, toddler, preschooler should ever have to endure. Birti doesn’t know her biological mom. She doesn’t know her biological dad. She has no idea who her biological grandparents are.

One thing she will probably always – the rest of her life – struggle with is whether or not she can be loved. [Don’t try to re-diagnose or armchair here, just trust me.] Do all kids struggle with this? Yes. Heck, I still struggle with it. But there are layers in Birti that I, nor most of you, will ever have to deal with.

Now. What do you think it does for her psychologically when she gets loved on by grandparents? What do you think it does for her to bond with her cousins? Yeah. I know. Whether she will ever be able to articulate it or not, Birti knows that she has layer upon layer of those who love her. Her parents? Check. Her brothers? Check. Both sets of grandparents? Check. Aunts and Uncles? Check. Cousins galore? Check. The more time she spends with her grandparents (on either side of the family), the deeper those layers of love run.

This is especially true for Birti. But I have a really good feeling it works for all the biological grandchildren. If nothing else, quantity and quality time with your grandchildren communicates to them that they will be taken care of. They will be secure. They will be loved on, regardless.

I cannot imagine what it’s really like to be a child growing up in the post-911, internet, cell phone, social media, pandemic, protests, etc. etc. etc. age. (Think about this – the year many high school graduates were born was 2001. They were born when our country was attacked and graduated when our world battles a pandemic.) But I can imagine as many children as possible need to know just how many layers of love and care they have.

Gradmaw. . . grandpaw . . .taking your kids’ kids is yet another step in this all important direction.

Tomorrow? Taking your kids’ kids allows for them to see another biblical marriage at work.