karin dancy

I knew it would happen. I just didn’t know how incredibly bittersweet it would be.

“It” = riding another wave of change as our two oldest kiddos launch new chapters of their lives.

When our daughter and older son were tiny tots with chubby cheeks in car seats, Joel and I would sometimes reflect, “They’re 3 years apart in age, but 4 years apart in grade level. Double graduations someday!” Our state changed the birthdate for kindergarten entry in between their birth years, so voilà.

As young parents, we knew 2025 would bring two kid-graduates, but we were too busy raising them to dwell on it. Back then, the idea of future double grads felt like a very slow moving train of significance that would eventually reach us . . . just no time soon.

And as the saying goes, the days are long, yet the years are short when growing little ones. It feels as if we blinked twice and found ourselves suddenly and quickly smack dab in Double Grad Land this year — a place my mama-heart now understands is also a special kind of Both/And.

As I watched our daughter unpacking kitchen items in her new apartment in a new city this week, I also saw her putting away her wooden blocks as a little one, a pink sippy cup nearby.

As I observe our son sorting through clothes, deciding which items to donate and which to keep as a college freshman this fall, I also see him organizing his toy soldiers on our family room carpet as a preschooler, preparing for an epic battle with my husband.

How does time do that — move slowly and so, so quickly at the same time? Seeing their young adult faces now while remembering their little faces then, so vividly, feels like being in a sentimental time warp.

After all, a double graduation year also means double transitions. And my mama-heart has burst double-time so many moments during this season of our lives.

Regular moments with our grads have felt anything but regular. In this season of life, moments with them feel sacred and meaningful.

These moments land on my heart so gently, as light as butterflies — yet they feel as powerful as jet planes. And they flood my mama-heart with both rearview memories of years ago, and hope-filled excitement for what’s ahead for them. So many prayers answered, so many blessings we couldn’t have imagined and didn’t even know to pray for.

Two grads bring twice the life transitions after diploma walks across stages and celebrations with family and friends. And life transitions carry twice the memories — the old ones we’ve shared, and the new ones we’re creating together as our family rides the waves of change, again.

With twice the Kleenex tissues for my eyes, too.

Your Turn: Riding waves of change? You’re in good company. Tell me about it.