Mike's out on a (fairly) rare ice cream run, the girls are in bed fast asleep and I'm contentedly contemplating the day's events and some of the deeper thoughts that stir my soul tonight. I feel as though today could very well have earned the title of "Best Mother's Day Yet" and I have to laugh as I think of what that means to me today. My first Mother's Day (4 years ago) I found myself extremely disappointed from ridiculously heightened levels of expectation. I somehow had envisioned an entire day of carefree bliss and a vacation from any kind of need/responsibility/sacrifice required of me on a regular basis. I had a four month old at the time. Talk about reality shattering fantasy. I remember being frustrated and upset as I declared to myself and to Mike (and probably even four month old Eileigh) that this was supposed to be my day... and yet I was still covered in spit-up, changing poopy diapers by the dozen and eternally hooked up to that necessary evil, my Medela breastpump. The baby still cried and I still didn't obtain a respectable (or even functional) amount of sleep. I was, in all sense of the word: Mom. This day is no different than any other day in that I am needed in a way that no one else can fulfill to the extent that I am called to do. No one else will love my daughters the way that I do. No one else will find their throat constricting and their heart squeezed countless times a day as I share life with my girls. No one else will think them as beautiful, as precious, as breathtaking and as worth every bit of every sacrifice I make... as I do. I mention this only because this Mother's Day was just as beautiful as every other day is. I mothered my children today- in the best sense of how I know the word. And I am thankful that my understanding of that grows as I am continually stretched and challenged. Today wasn't beautiful because there were no tears, no poopy diapers and no food thrown on the floor (there were all three). Today was beautiful because I saw wiping tears, changing diapers and cleaning up the floor as a reminder that not only am I doing what I'm called to be doing but that I have been blessed with two beautiful, feminine little reasons to choose joy in the sacrifice of truly loving. Can there be any greater calling than that? So Happy Mother's Day, today and every day, to every mom who finds herself with tears to wipe, sacrifices to make and an ever-expanding understanding of the all-encompassing Love we share with our children. Happy Mother's Day.
