A few years ago for french mother’s day/the day before our anniversary, Dave wrote me a simple, sweet note declaring a happy future Mother’s Day to me.
This was before we knew that it wouldn’t just be an “okay now we’re ready and *voila* here is our pregnancy” story for us.
The road to this year, my first Mother’s Day with a living being to whom I am mom, has been longer than some people’s and far shorter than others’.
***(Life note: comparison gets us nowhere healthy, whether or not the comparison has us come out “on top”! The story being written with my life will not be the same as those around me because our Creator knits us individually and uniquely within our mothers’ wombs, and with purposes equally individual and unique. We’re not the product of a cookie cutter or a stack of color-by-numbers that vary a little but are basically the same - we’re the one-of-a-kind masterpieces of a God whose creativity knows no bounds. Let’s release the burden of unmerited pride and unwarranted discontent that come with comparison, shall we?)***
As our little man who’s made me a mom and I were showered with love yesterday (while his dad & friends were awesomely checking off physical to-do list tasks in and around home!), I was overwhelmed by such gratitude. For this season we’re living, and also those which came before. And for the people surrounding us, near and far.
Mothering is not limited to those who have little (or grown) ones who know them as “mom.” I do not take for granted my precious mom and having her still with me. I do not take for granted having gained a mother-in-law whom I love. And I do not take for granted all of the other women who have mothered me throughout my life, sometimes for seasons, sometimes for the long haul.
And I also feel the gratitude of the lessons I’ve been privileged to learn when God has put people in my story and asked me to mother them for a time. My son will have a far different experience with me as a mother because of each of my students, because of each of our nieces and nephews.
What a day to celebrate! To celebrate the gift and responsibility of speaking life and love and maturity into the lives around us, to calling up and out the best in those whose stories intersect with ours, to protecting and nurturing while guiding and challenging.
That is mothering.
Happy Mother’s Day to each of you, whatever this looks like in your life 
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