Motherhood

Motherhood is nausea and a crushed bladder and insomnia. Motherhood is talking to and protecting a life the size of a pinhead. Motherhood is excruciating labor and bliss at first sight. It is sleepless nights and stolen 3am kisses. Sore nipples, stretch marks and baby weight. Motherhood is swollen pride at the first smile, the first steps and the first word, the joy at hearing "Mama"...and sometimes the pierced heart of hearing the same word when it's coming from an ill little voice that you can't do anything for. Motherhood fills the heavens with whispered middle-of-the-night prayers of thanksgiving, for wisdom, for healing and of joy. Motherhood is also being a chef, a confidante, a valet, a punching bag, a physician, a teacher, and entertainer. Motherhood is being good cop and bad cop. Motherhood is a learning experience. It is knowing when to hold a hand, hold them close or let them go. From no one else will a mother learn more about patience than from her child. It is a job in which one pays very close attention to one's mistakes - and one's triumphs. It is knowing when to scold and when sometimes good humor is the best reaction. Motherhood is fleeting, yet it is lifelong. Motherhood is relishing ten little fingers and toes and then, later, them finding the one and counting their own child's tens. It is silently praying that your child will make the right choice, the godly choice, then trusting that you've raised them well enough to do it. Motherhood is as individual as it is a club, and it brings a sense of camaraderie that only moms can understand. Motherhood makes one stronger, yet also shows just how weak and powerless we can be, how dependent we must be on a Dependable God. Motherhood is a privilege, one that I am so thankful for.