I understand my parent's gray hair

I was looking in the mirror the other day and I noticed some gray hair speckling the area above my temple. What a shock! I still feel and act as if I'm only thirteen years old. I certainly shouldn't be going gray yet. Then I started to think back on what the last three and a half years of my life has been like.
October 6th 2005- phone rings at 3:30 am ish. Heidi is on the other end telling me that she thinks her water broke. I get out of bed and rush to the Orem hospital where my beautiful is being prepped for C section. A short time later, my first son is born. A minute later his twin brother is pulled out and is not breathing. My heart sank! I thought Carter wasn't going to make it. Thanks to a very talented respiratory therapist, Carter begins to breathe and his color goes from purple to a nice shade of pink. The hospital staff usher me out of the operating room so that I might be with my children. It was an amazing experience. I'm sure the seed of my first gray hair was planted that morning.
I have had an unusually difficult time with Davis and Carter lately. They have been very defiant, loud and mean to each other. Carter and Davis have been hitting the dogs each other and their mother. Everything we try to correct the problem backfires and we have to start all over again. They spit. They scream. They throw food. The poop in odd places. They pee on the lawn outside in order to be more like the dogs. They cut their clothes with scissors. They yank flowers out the garden. They hit each other in the face. They pull each others hair. Each time someting negative happens a gray hair seed is sowed.
I can say that I understand my parents gray hair. Each hair represents the time in which their children have caused them grief and stress. Having said that, I wonder what would indicate the number of times a child helps fill their parents heart with gratefulness and love. What is the indicator, of the times of joy?, the number of hugs?, the I love yous before bed?, when they finally understand the concept of pooping in the potty?
Last week I looked a little more closely to my father's hair and I noticed that the hair I thought was gray is actually a brilliant silver. The individual hair must have started out gray but when the pains of raising a child have faded and only good memories remain, then we will learn that the hair was never gray but silver. I have since reexamined my gray and I now see silver.
With all the heartache of raising a child we must remember that what we do today will affect the color of our hair tomorrow. I'm grateful that I have two healthy, loud, and energetic boys. I'm certainly blessed!!
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