Oh, how we change

Every parent knows that your children change you in so many ways, more ways then you could possibly imagine before the birth of your first child. They change your outlook, your perspective, your capacity to love. Recently, Elizabeth has helped me change in yet another way. She has completely changed my perspective on . . . road construction.

We are surrounded by road construction these days. Fifteen years ago, our area was covered with forest, fields, and narrow country roads. Well, it's now a modern suburb, but we still have our little country roads. There has been a fury of road construction going on to try to update them to meet the demands of the swelling population.

Normally, I would think that road construction projects on virtually every main road that we drive on would be fertile ground for headaches and frustration. But, instead, when we see those orange construction signs, the little girl in my minivan gets so excited that I can't help but get excited, too!

We've seen diggers (Elizabeth's name for backhoes), bulldozers, cranes, pile drivers, and dump trucks by the dozens. Most of the time, we slow down and watch them at work. We actually welcome traffic stops by flagmen because then we have more time to watch the diggers creating trenches or huge pile drivers slamming concrete columns that will later support bridges into the ground . We are both in awe of these massive machines at work! It has been so much fun watching all these goings on through the bright, inquisitive eyes of my three year old girl.

Oh, and one more change in perspective. It was my little girl who opened my eyes to the joys of heavy machinery!