Words can't describe the overflowing joy of seeing my new grandson for the first time. It was as if I were re-living the experience I had in seeing Kolton, my first grandson, for the first time. And if I live long enough (God willing), maybe I'll be able to witness the lives of my great-grandchildren as well, as my mom has had the priviledge of doing over the last several years.

I'll leave the emotionally-charged fancy and descriptive words to the poets and those gifted in writing about such wonderful things as the miracle of birth, but I still wanted to take a moment to express how grateful to God I am for having been given the wonderful opportunity and challenging responsibility of being a parent and grandparent. Sometimes I'll encounter a couple who've tried for years to become parents, all to no avail, and- even more sadly- sometimes I'll run across a parent or parents who take the responsibility and opportunity for granted- or even despise being a parent. This is something I'll probably never understand, because I can tell you that looking at that son, daughter, grandson or granddaughter for the first time, it's "love at first sight." I only hope that I can live up to the challenge to be the best grandpa this world has ever seen. The old joke is that the great part about being a grandparent is that you can spoil the grandkids rotten and then give them back to the parents to deal with as a "get even" tactic for what your kids put your through. The other joke (old as the hills) is that the best part of grandparenting is that when they spit up, soil a diaper, or start crying, you can hand them back to the parents.

It seems as if it were only a few years ago that I started saving photos of Kristin and me to Flickr, and then suddenly she was grown and I was taking pictures of my grandson. Now I have the wonderful opportunity of starting over a third time with a new "subject" for my camera (some would say "victim," having witnessed my photos over the years), saving these shots (and all my old Flickr stuff) at an even more-awesome place, Ipernity. May the fun continue, and may Ipernity be around and be user-friendly for many more years to come! :)