As the years go by, the list of things that you want get shorter.
Family, love, health, financial stability, good friends.
This Mother’s Day, one of the “items on my list” was granted.
I was making pancakes in the kitchen, when I heard my almost 6-year-old tell my 3 year old “No, Hailey, Stop it. Mommmmmmmmy, she keeps grabbing my IPAD. She keeps rolling over to my toys and taking them.”
Then I heard a boisterous, almost devilish giggle coming from my three-year old’s mouth.
No parent wants to hear their children bickering, but that is something I have longed for, ever since I realized that my children wouldn’t be playing in the same manner that most do.
While I heard the two of them “go at it” in their own way, I couldn’t help but smile.
Here was my three-year-old girl, who has struggled for so long, getting from place to place, using her strength to hold up toys, getting herself into trouble.
I went upstairs as my husband was awakening for the day, and said with a grin, “Man, Hailey is really becoming a pain in the butt these days. She is stealing all of Noah’s toys and I had to get her out of the bathroom again.”
“This is a good thing; this is what we want. I love it,” he replied with a smile also gleaming across his face.
It is too often that we take things for granted, but I find, sometimes, I can see the biggest beauty in the smallest of moments.
I am blessed with the gift of motherhood. I know that there are mothers all over the world who have their own meaning of what this day means and that is not lost on me.
I know there are mothers who may be waiting for the day they can carry a child in their arms, a mother who may be grieving the loss of her child, a mother who may be struggling with post-partum, a new mother who is loving on their bundle of joy, a mother struggling with a new diagnosis for their child, a mother who needs to know it is ok to need a break, and the list goes on.
While for me, it is a day that has taken on a new meaning the moment I had my son, and then my daughter with a rare disease, I know that the impact I make on my children will be carried with them.
This Mother’s Day I was already gifted with a moment of growth in my child that some may say is a negative, or some may say is not full of meaning, but for me, in that moment of “typicalness” between my children, I felt good. And that is gift enough.
Happy Mother’s Day.
