Mothers Day

I think I was a bit cynical of Mother's Day as I was growing up.

Why do Mothers need a special day? It's not like we don't celebrate them on their birthdays and Christmas. What makes moms need a special EXTRA holiday? Where's my Daughter's Day?

Even after we got married I had friends who felt pretty strongly about celebrating regardless of if we had kids.

Woman all DESERVE to be waited on hand and foot on Mothers Day, whether they're a mother or not. You need to tell your husband this! And make him do it! And make him buy you presents!

I never felt this strongly about DESERVING a wife's day. So for the first two years of our marriage I never demanded special treatment or special presents from him (even though he still volunteered those things) and instead I focused on celebrating our mothers (last year on mothers day was when we told them we were pregnant... we didn't even know it was twins until the next day so we had to call everyone back and amend our announcement).


But this year--this year of actually BEING a mother--I had a change of heart. Now knowing all the things mothers go through: the stress, the worry, the stretch marks, the late feedings, the consoling, the sacrificing, the changings, the hormones, the weight, the interruptions, the cleaning, the maintaining, the balancing the needs of a whole FAMILY (instead of just one person) and the needs of a HOUSEHOLD (with all of the indoor and outdoor and everything in between) and keeping everyone and everything going smoothly.... this year I felt like YEAH! I'll take the pampering for a day! I'll let you feed and change and cook and clean while I sit back and rest for a day, I don't feel guilty at all. (Especially when I fully intend to return the favor to Adam for Fathers Day). Parents do a lot and I now praise the name of Julia Ward Howe (she who first proclaimed a mothers day). (I also praise Otto Frederick Rohwedder but that's a story for another day...). It's not like we didn't take care of each other our first couple years of marriage, but it's different when you're both pretty self-sufficient and don't NEED the other person to do things for you cause you can pretty much do what you need yourself. Both having kids and owning a home has changed a lot of that and now there's too much for either of us to do by ourselves and we've become much more dependant on each other and learned to work better as partners to ease each other's loads. And taking care of Jenna and Lucy who are COMPLETELY dependant on us for ALL of their needs has eliminated any last bit of selfishness we had since we get to serve them constantly. It's wonderful work. And today was a wonderful break from it.

Adam told me to sit and relax while he made me pancakes for breakfast. So I made a cup of Postum (I think I have the last jar left in the valley... mmmm) and did the crossword puzzle. What a treat!

We got ready and went to church. The girls gave me a nice mothers day present and slept through most of the meetings. Lovely! I felt a little jipped that our primary only sang us ONE mothers day song, but at least it was well done.

True to his word, Adam waited on me hand and foot and I relaxed all afternoon. Besides feeding the girls I didn't have to do anything, it was so nice. The three of them gave me a nice present (a new, bigger SD card for my camera so this mother can keep doing one thing she loves best-- taking pictures of my family) but even better Adam wrote me a sweet, sweet letter (made me cry) and at the bottom he signed his name and then had taken each of the girls and held their hands and helped them each sign their own name. Ahh! What a tender thing to see. How is he always so perfect?

We took cards over to our mothers later in the day and enjoyed being with family. We're so blessed with two terrific mothers who have paved the path of parenthood at its finest. Adam and I are so grateful that we get to live so close to both of them and that they're still so willing to help us with anything and everything in life and answer all of our questions (do you ever stop needing your mother?). I have so much love for both my mom, Debbie, and my mother in law, Jeanette. What incredible women they are.

It was so fun to celebrate my first Mothers Day as a mother. I was born to fill this role and I have never felt so complete as I do when I'm serving Adam and my children, Jenna and Lucy. What an honor it is.