Getting Old

I distinctly remember looking at my mom's Better Homes and Garden magazine when I was around 10 or so, and thinking what a stupid magazine. Why would anyone ever want a magazine on gardening and house stuff and recipes?

Flash forward almost 20 years, and now I know why. (Even just typing that sentence makes me feel old!)

My Better Homes and Garden magazine came yesterday and I was super pumped. I love it! All the recipes and the house decorating ideas and the clothes tips! I might as well be secretly working for them! Regardless, it is official, I am old. Well, older than I used to be.

I am one of the adults at our youth group for church. The graduating seniors this year look like babies. I am astounded at how young they look, and in another year we are going to turn them loose in the world and basically say good luck. A friend of mine, both older and wiser than me, said one day when I was pondering at how young they look and do I look old to them, "You know how young they look to you? That's how old you look to them." Nice, and great for the ego. I happen to think that I look fairly decent for 29, hopefully younger than my age, but then I got it all dashed away with that comment!

Perhaps though, I am old in my thinking. I can't count how many times people have said when hearing that we were adopting "But you can have your own! Why would you want to spend that kind of money on kids when you can have them?" Of course, I patiently (well, try to be, sometimes I just want to smack them, which would be my non-oldness coming through!) try to explain our reasons. But most of the time, they just stare at us with their mouth slightly open and a look of disbelief on their face.

I have learned that I cannot make people understand why we are adopting. (that's older person wisdom for you!) People just understand it, or they don't. I realize that a lot of people in my generation are still all about the things they can acquire and the money they can make. We have chosen children, and it is right for our family. No one else needs to understand that but us.

So, today, I am going to sit down and read my Better Homes and Garden and enjoy the fact that I may be older, but I am loving my life!