This pantry door in our kitchen is historical.  Recorded here are the heights of our children from the time they were small.  This summer we added Clark, age 3 at the bottom.  Every year, we marked the growth and added the date or age.

These milestones are a visual reminder that children grow.  No matter how badly we want to hang on to them and keep them near us, there is no stopping them.  Before you know it, they fly.

Adam topped the chart at 6’5″ when he was 17 years old.  Aaron is close behind at 6’4″.  Claire is about my height at 5’9″.

The markers are fading now, smudged and hard to read, but the memories remain of my children yearning and stretching and willing themselves to grow taller and taller, hoping to pass us up.  That, they’ve done, in so many more ways than height.  What good kids they’ve grown into!