Motherhood

I'm currently eating my second piece of pumpkin cake.  I just finished putting my four kiddos to bed and my husband is at the Homecoming dance.  I know...that is a strange way to start a blog post about motherhood.  It has been a very long week!  We've had adoption stress, a crazy busy schedule and those stinkin' Cardinals keep winning!  Since we got rid of cable years ago, we aren't able to watch the games here.  So, my husband has been visiting generous friends during game nights and I've been trying to remember not to feed him beans on the nights he'll be sitting in a friend's living room.  :)  So, if you add Cardinal game + husband at a friend's house, you'll come up with = I'm at home on my own with the kids a lot.  Add to that two nights in a row of supervisory duties and you'll find a girl that is starting to forget what her husband looks like!
Tonight, I was remembering the early days when Hubby would be at work late and I'd be home with two, or three, or four small children.  We had our kids back to back.  Those were some very lonely nights.  But, now that the kids are getting older, it is actually a lot of fun.  We stopped by red box and got a wonderful but depressing movie.  Noodle is the only one that stuck with me through the whole thing.  We also got Chinese takeout.  As we were dipping it out, everyone was scurrying around getting water, and turning on the movie.  I thought, "There is nothing else I'd rather be doing tonight.  These people are my best friends!"  I love hanging out with my kids.  They are funny, and weird, and amazing!  Putting them to bed tonight took fooorrrreeevvveeerrr!  They were seriously chatty.  But, I looked at it as a chance to get to know them a little more.  My thoughts spanned out like ripples on the water.  I reflected over the events of the day.  My children all have very distinct personalities.  Our day started with a dose of perspective for our oldest.  He became completely unhinged because his brothers accidentally erased his work on a wii game.  I had a great convo with him about perspective and reasons to fall apart.  Starvation, and parents dying of AIDS are reasons for devastation...not a wii game.  Ahhhh, Motherhood is about perspective!  As the day progressed, I watched our second born battle it out on the football field.  He was tough.  But, when we got in the car after the game, he was so distraught that he couldn't eat.  "My friends got hurt."  Tears started to fall.  He is a gentle giant.  And he is not as open as the others.  I often have to dig out of him the reason for his sadness.  I offered him gentleness and compassion.  We prayed for his friends.  Ahhhh, Motherhood is about support.  Our third born was completely off his game today.  He whined constantly.  Disobeyed me several times and had to be touching me every second of the day.  More than once, I actually thought about hiding from him. Ahhhh, Motherhood is about grace!  Our fourth born laughed in the face of danger all day.  He is afraid of NOTHING!  He is opinionated, focused, and brave.  Ahhh, Motherhood is about letting go.  And our fifth child.  She is probably eating her lunch in an orphanage half way across the world right now.  We prayed for her tonight.  My heart aches for someone that I don't even know.  Everything in me wants to speed ahead to the day we bring her home.  But, the paperwork comes first.  Ahhh, Motherhood is about patience!  I think of the wonderful and difficult lessons I'm learning from these unique and complicated people.  God is refining me and growing me through the process of Motherhood.  I am so grateful to be on this journey.  I am grateful that God is allowing me to be a mom and to help grow His children.  It is a huge responsibility and I'll never take it lightly.
But you know what else motherhood is?  It is a house full of content and sleeping children.  It is supporting my teammate while he supervises a dance so our family will have the things we need.  And right now... it is about a hot bath and a new book!  Because I hate to admit it, but the pumpkin cake is gone! :)
Goodnight!