Motherhood Moments

Since Mother’s Day was last Sunday, I’ve been thinking a lot this week about what Erma Bombeck termed “the second oldest profession in the world” – motherhood. It is most definitely a life-changing experience like no other, and although at times kids can push you to new limits of frustration, children also inspire humor and purpose and remind us of the power of love. Moments like these are to be treasured.

As part of a Mother’s Day gift, our youngest child’s pre-school teacher interviewed each student in the class individually to ask some questions about his or her mom. When asked to give my age, my daughter said I was 80 years old. It was funny, and a little disturbing. I don’t look a day over…75. Surprisingly, I was not the oldest in the group – one of the little boys guessed that his mother was 99.

However, our youngest redeemed herself by finishing the statement, “My mom is special because…” with “she loves me.” This made me smile because above all things, I want our girls to feel absolutely loved. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if everyone was able to love and be loved?

I also get a kick out of our oldest daughter’s Huckleberry Finn-style “praying for fish hooks” strategy. She’s nervous every Tuesday night about P.E. at school the following day and will often pray that they’ll play the parachute game, one she is comfortable with and likes. A few weeks ago, during standardized testing, she wasn’t sure if they would even have P.E. the next day, so she decided to ask God. She waited a few seconds in silence after her prayer and then turned to me and said confidently, “He said we wouldn’t.”

I love the way our girls exclaimed excitedly upon driving into the church parking lot last fall for the costume-required Halloween carnival, “Look! Father West is dressed up like a priest!”

Guess I’m going to have to prepare myself for the roller coaster of boy-girl relationships, which I didn’t anticipate having to deal with until many years down the road. Our oldest received a rose on Valentine’s Day from a boy in her class (Her only other competition? The first grade teacher!), and our youngest apparently broke up with her five-year-old boyfriend at school this week when he decided he didn’t want to be her boyfriend anymore. Men! When I asked her about the incident, she said she didn’t care because she didn’t want to be “dating to him” anyway. Reminded me of the phrase Tina Fey uses on 30 Rock, which came from her young daughter: “I want to go to there.”

It warms my heart to think about our girls’ excitement about attending the second wedding of a 70-plus-year-old widow who is an acquaintance of the family. As the woman was escorted down the aisle by her two 50-year-old sons, our little one leaned over to my husband and asked, “Which one is her dad?”

These wonderful creatures have blessed my life immeasurably and continue to entertain, amaze, challenge, inspire and teach me. There is no greater gift than to look into the little faces God has entrusted to you and hear the words, “I love you, Mommy.”

I love you, too, girls. Thanks for making my Mother’s Day week so special.