Thoughts

I'm long overdue in posting about Mother's Day -- what can I say, it's been a crazy week!

Being a mom is the most fulfilling and challenging role of my life. It's both exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. It's feeling like you're going nuts then seeing your sweet child's smile and feeling your heart melt. It's having a thousand memories that only you and your child will share. It's doing more than you've ever done on less sleep than you've ever had. It's icing lopsided cakes because they helped and having it taste better than ever. It's reading the same book so many times that you don't even have to look at the words -- and knowing you'll never, never forget them. Being a mom to me means days spent getting nothing checked off my "to do" list and yet never stopping for a moment because we're having too much fun. It's books piles and legos, tickling and slobbery kisses. It's seeing the world through the eyes of your child and remembering what it was like to be a child. It's seeing God through the eyes of your child and being reminded of the enormity of his love in the love I feel for them. I find myself struggling to give them the most out of their childhood -- days of just being silly and not having a care in the world, days where we never get dressed or go anywhere. When I think back on my childhood, it's not the big, planned events that I loved the most. It's that feeling that I get when I think about being home with my mom -- her folding laundry while we played or helping her make cookies -- the feeling that with her there everything was right with the world. It's a sense of peace and assurance that I still remember and am trying so hard to create for my little ones. So (belatedly) thanks, mom for giving me that gift, a gift so powerful that I want more than anything to pass it on to my little ones.

Here are the two reasons that Mother's Day is so special for me.....

The sweet little girl who made me believe in love at first sight,

and the little boy who has stolen my heart.