Where does time go?

One of my favorite commercials is a Subaru commercial where the dad is about to hand his keys over to his little girl.  He sees a sweet little six year old girl sitting behind the wheel, when in reality she is a 16 year old.  I pause to watch this commercial whenever it is on.  I am sure that dad wonders where the time went.


Where does time go?  I hear that often from my friends who are wishing their children a happy birthday.  I have often used that phrase myself in regards to my children, or the end of a duty assignment, and especially when time off draws to an end.  At this point in my life I am pondering that sentiment quite often.  


Yesterday marked the 19th birthday of my darling twinkies.  NINETEEN!!!  I was that age when I began dating their dad.  It also was the first birthday where I didn't  get to wrap my arms around them and hug them.  Where did the time go?  It seems like yesterday I was praying they would just sleep through the night, or praying their first day of Kindergarten would be wonderful, or praying that we could just make it through middle school, and many other trials and tribulations that were placed in our path.  There were definitely moments I was not sure we would make it to nineteen and still be LIKE each other!!  :-)  Yet, here we are.  


This morning I realized that not only have they begun their last year of teens, they are about to finish their FIRST year of college!!  I am almost dumbfounded at this thought. It seems that just a moment ago I was trying to be so strong as they walked across the stage to graduate from high school, and then leaving them for their first day on campus, and now we are looking at a year under their belt.  Where has the time gone??  I look at them and see those sweet little six year old girls walking across campus with all of those OLDER kids.  They will always and forever be those sweet darling little girls in my eyes, and yet, I blink and see these amazing, beautiful, kind and tenderhearted ladies who are just breezing through their freshman year of college.  The time was gone in a blink of an eye, but let the eye lid linger a little during the blink, and I see some wonderfully beautiful moments that draw a smile across my face.   Moments that shaped these beautiful ladies I see before me.  


The thought then shifts to the feisty little boys who are still living in my house.  Those 6'2 babies that sometimes still call me 'mommy'.  At this point in the girls lives I really hadn't considered how quickly a blink passes.  They two are becoming little men whose lives I marvel.  I am just going to remind myself each morning to hug those marvels while they are living in my home.