 The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. For those with kids, that figure leads to wild fantasies about all the money you could have banked, if not for your children. For others, that number might confirm the decision to remain childless. But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. $171.08 a week, or $24.44 a day, or Just over a dollar an hour!  children if you want to be "rich." It is just the opposite. What do your get for your $160,140? 2. Glimpses of God every day. 3. Giggles under the covers every night. 4. More love than your heart can hold. 5. Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs. 6. Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies. 7. A hand to hold usually covered with jam. 8. A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sand castles and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain. 9. Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.  finger-paint pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, and catch lightning bugs. You have an excuse to keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disney movies, and wishing on stars. You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect hand made menorahs from Sunday school, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.  be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter, filling the wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.  first word, first bra, first date, and first time behind the wheel.  family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren. You get education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.  have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.  I know mine are!   Please don't forget to sign
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