Packing My Valise

One of my favorite bloggers is Dave Hingsburger at the Rolling Around In My Head blog. He posted an entry the other day titled, “When I Pack For Heaven” and it really made me slow down and think. I've written many times in the past about things for which I am thankful, but when I think of whittling all those thankful things down to just a few that I can pack in a small valise for my trip to Heaven, things got a little tougher.

I’m really hoping that St. Peter will allow me to enter Heaven with maybe a medium sized valise considering that I have five children, and have many things to pack. But if not, here is my list of the most important things to pack. Why don’t you think about this and tell me what you would pack?

Things to Squish into my Valise for my Trip to Heaven:

• Ashley’s smile and little giggle when I pull the bed covers off her head each morning.


• The pride in Jessica’s eyes when she finally was able to wear ‘big girl’ panties all the time.


• Chip’s hand slipping into mine while we attended my mother’s funeral.


• The way Corey stood just a little taller after he was inducted into the Army.


• The vision of Ronnie shooting both fists into the air whenever he makes a basket for his wheelchair basketball team.


• The memory of the way Ashley wrapped her whole body around me right after her brain surgery at age 2.


• Jessica’s grin and the little skip in her step when she walked on stage for her 8th grade graduation.


• Seeing the abject fear in Chip’s eyes when Ashley almost lost her life to a seizure, and then watching him not want to let go of her hand once we knew she would survive.


• Having Corey list me as his mother on his Army recruitment papers when I am actually just his legal guardian. I never had official mother status for him.


• When Ronnie opened his eyes and search for me after a very serious surgery just a few months after he had joined our family.

Oh my, I think my valise is already full. Maybe I need to have a little talk with St. Peter to see if I can bring more than one!