Children

I've just been thinking...

Being a mom (or being a parent, but I'm a mom so we'll stick with that for now) is one of the most rewarding and challenging things I think a person could ever do. The fitful sleepless nights, the body changes, the pains, the incredible amount of information and opinion on what is the right discipline, what is the right sleep method, eat method, car seat, stroller (push chair), even which way a kid should face in the stroller can become a topic of advice and is completely overwhelming and has brought many a mother to tears. It's non-ending the amount of decisions that come with raising a child.



And yet it's amazing how perfectly natural it all comes. With the first kid everything feels like an event. Changing a diaper is an event. Feeding is an event. But by the second one, you go into auto pilot for most things. You can change a diaper in your sleep, with your eyes shut (almost). You know the sound of a pacifier falling out of a mouth from across the house and how many > seconds you have till the baby starts crying. The moments when your children spontaneously laugh at something you say or do never gets old. The delight and wonder they experience -daily- at discovering new things, keeps us young, brings us back to being children ourselves.



The intense mothering instinct to protect, to make children not run with pencils or chopsticks ("you'll poke your eye out"), to hide them from rejection, bullies, pain or suffering, leads us to deeper levels with Father God a thousand moments a day. The beautiful blush of pride that will be worn on your tired face when your child stands at the top of the slide, hill, stage, or in front of his latest piece of art will give you small glimpses into the great pleasure that we give our Father. Yeah, so I don't get hours of quiet time, and I barely have sat through a Sunday morning service at church in 3 years- but the amount of revelation I experience daily on how my Father loves me is amazing. It's non-regrettable. It's deep. It's perfect. It's exactly the way it should be! (For now at least- I do look forward to returning to an entire church service!)

Hot Husband and I commented with Cute Child that it (becoming a parent) was the steepest and fastest learning curve a person could ever go through. But it gets easier, and then just when it does, you look at one another and say... "let's have another one". And then, Lawd Have Mercy. You start it all over again... only this time it's a bit easier.