It’s been way too long.

I’ve been writing short stories lately – two for an anthology by the Houston chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers. That was a contest, and my two stories were finalists and chosen to be published in the anthology. That should come out in February, 2016.

I also wrote two short stories (and a third on the way) for an anthology by Jodie Renner, to raise money to help rescue children from child labor in Asia.

And then I’ve written two short stories for grandchildren. I’m finding that to be one of the most rewarding of writing experiences. One was written before the last post for Brooklyn. And the other I just finished and delivered within the past week, for Ethan, the newest addition to the grandchildren.

Ethan is the first child of our second son, Brad, and his wife, Jaymie. We visited them earlier this week in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ethan is a handsome little man. He has dark hair, like his mom, and lots of it. While we were there he spent most of his time eating and sleeping. And he likes to be held. So our special time was holding him while he slept. Such a sweetie. He’s only about 4 weeks old, so we are excited to see how he will interact with us when he is older.

We have one other grandson, Leighton. And he just turned three. In fact, Leighton’s and Ethan’s birthdays are 12 days apart. I’ve written about Leighton in a previous post. And he’s changing quickly with each month. Now wearing glasses, he looks like a little professor. When he was younger, he was so quiet. Now he talks constantly. Wow, he’s changing.

So why do granddads get so excited about grandsons?

I came up with the following reasons:

1. We see them as the future of our family.
2. They give us hope that we can start them off in the right direction.
3. We want to help them avoid the mistakes we made.
4. We want to avoid the mistakes of grandparenting that we made with parenting.
5. We can enjoy being with them instead of worrying like a new parent.
6. We see in them a legacy for the future.
7. We hope that they can achieve that which we failed to achieve.
8. They make what we worked for, saved, and built worthwhile. Now we can share it with them.
9. When they’re young, we get to enjoy the age of innocence all over again.
10. They remind us of when our children were young.
11. They will actually listen to us, and hopefully learn from us.
12. They’re not judgmental.
13. They’re excited about spending time with us.
14. And yes…we get to spoil them and send them home.

They are a hope for the future. Enjoy them while you can.