Grateful

To have a mother is to have a constant place of love and acceptance.   There are inevitable conflicts and clashes as your mom tries to figure out just how to love you and let you grow up.  (Also because you think you know everything.)  She is a comfort, a refuge and a very safe place to return to over and over. 

To be a mother means having your heart stretched beyond what you think is possible.  It’s facing up to your short-comings, finding out you know nothing and leaning heavily on God’s grace.  It’s a lifetime (not 18 years) of hopes and prayers and thoughts about the one who came from your womb.  It’s humbling and joyful and hard and rewarding and heart-breaking and immensely fulfilling.  It’s full of little moments that give you renewed strength and joy to counter-balance a few others that can steal your sleep and rob you of every shred of peace.  It’s a gift – an impossibly wonderful gift that never ends. 

How grateful I am for the mother God gave to me – and how much I miss her today.

And how thankful I am for the three girls God gave me.  I love them so!

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