Is It Grandma Magic?

(Originally posted over on Wordpress. Copied here so people won't have to join a site just to read my work.)

There is very little that is better in life than being a grandparent. You parents out there have so much to look forward to. It always made my heart ache a little to see my children growing up. 'Empty Nest' syndrome scared me. I'd been a mom so much of my life
I wasn't sure I knew how to do anything else.

Then I became a grandma...

I was not at all ready for the huge wave of intense love that washed over me when I saw that tiny face. And when those eyes turned to meet mine the first time I spoke and held that tiny body...well, I was captivated. Every day since that day over 17 years ago, my heart walks around outside my body in the form of eight grandchildren. I love my children, always have, always will...but this grandchild thing...it is beyond what I felt for my children. I think it might be tangled up in 'grandma magic.'

While I sat in the "Father's Waiting Room" a few doors down the hall from where my second grandchild was actively being born, I wondered if I could love another child as much as I did my first grandchild. What if I couldn't? What if this grandchild was just another baby in the world? How could I keep my children from seeing it in my face? Surely at some family function or another they would see that I didn't feel the same about both children? How could I keep my children from being hurt that I wasn't able to love another child the way I loved my first grandchild? Then the nurse came and told me I could go into the room and meet my newest grandchild...I approached that door with excitement, and dread. Turns out I needn't have worried, the moment my eyes fell upon him, that same rush of overwhelming love washed over me...and it's happened every time a new grandchild has joined our family. It doesn't surprise me anymore, but it still amazes me that such tiny people can so totally take over a person's heart and no matter how many of them come, the heart has room for more.