My father was commenting the other day that children cost you money. And time. And a little bit of sanity. He said this as he was looking into buying a savings bond for his youngest great-grandson, my youngest grandson, Tony. In the next breath he mentioned, though, how much children give you. I know that, even as my almost-eighty-year-old father comments on this, he thinks of the holidays when the house that held six of us fairly comfortably bursts at the seams with his progeny. Such gatherings fill him, I think, with a sense of wonder.

When my son, Tony's dad, was a baby, we used to play a game: SO BIG. How we and countless parents before us did this was to ask the baby how big he was and then stretch his little arms as high as they would go as we responded with, "Tony's SOOO big!" The babies I played with in this way always responded with delight, just as my father does, just as my husband and I do, when we look at our extended family.

Yes, our children have cost us money. And, although they are really good as children go, they have caused us to worry and to shed some tears. But just as my husband's and my hearts grew as we learned to love each other, so our children have opened them even more. Our daughter-in-law, the babies, our nephew's new wife...we have room. And the hope that fills our hearts as we watch who our children and grandchildren are becoming opens us up even more.

So my dad is right. Having children, taking chances, being vulnerable to hurt carries with it a price. But there is also a reward. And just as I hope little Tony will smile when I play with him, I smile as I think of how all the risk allowed my heart to grow....

....so big.

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