Joy

The weather has been pretty good so we've been able to go to the park, get out of the house and just play.  These are the days when I sit back and watch them and find myself so thankful, so completely overwhelmed in blessings.  

I was at a Christmas social this morning for the women's bible study I attend, to sit and talk with other moms is wonderful.  To come into a home with your hands full of kids and coats, shoes and bags and not be the only one is a blessing.  I get such encouragement from our church, a place where family is such a focus, where children are such blessings.

Sometimes when I'm running my errands the reactions I get for having three close is wonderful.  The small words of encouragement usually come from older couples, ones whose children are long grown-up.  They pat me on the arm and say "I remember those days, cherish them".  Other times, I get looks that aren't so nice, comments of "you must be so busy, how do you cope, are they all yours? do they have the same Dad? (yes - that one came to me when Maddie was about one).

A friend encouraged me once to react to these comments with the words "yes, it can be very busy, but its such blessing".  Kids listen closely, and this response is a good one for them to overhear as well.  The reality is some shopping trips are huge successes, where we stop and count out the apples together or the kids look at the cheeses and tell me which one is the lowest price.  When we play "I spy" in the lineup while waiting.  When we look happy. The other reality is that is not going to always happen, having kids is never picture perfect. My last grocery shopping trip was of me running around, two kids squished in a cart (one crying) and one trailing behind while I grabbed everything I needed and rushed out as fast as I could.  I looked tired, overwhelmed and not so happy.  The kids were fighting and at one point when I was paying for my groceries they started yelling at each other, and I mean YELLING.

The next day was this day, when we ran to the park and I took pictures.  Jacob became a taxi driver and I sat in the play car as he explained the rules of his taxi and he drove me to wherever I wanted to go.  We drove to the zoo, to the ocean and to the mountains.  Kaylin and I were the passengers and I listened as she described what she saw.  And to sit there and listen to the imaginations of your children is a thing of beauty.

To watch them play together, to watch them grow together is sometimes hard to express. Joy, contentment, trust and love all rolled together.

Is life busy?  yes.  Do I get overwhelmed?  absolutely.  Would I change anything? never.

And those negative comments that I sometimes get when I'm out and about?  They are (finally) beginning to not bother me as much.  This is the life that I've been called to, and though outsiders looking in may wonder, I'm learning that its up to me to show them that yes, this task of mothering, of raising children to know Him, it is beautiful, it is a calling and there is joy.  So much joy.