Gifts

This Mother’s Day I woke up and was greeted with hugs, kisses, coffee, cards, and gifts. John wrote out Mareto’s message to me inside his card and I cried/smiled my whole way through it …

Dear Mom, 

Thank you for being such a wonderful mom. Thank you for loving me more than anything in the world. Thank you for almond milk that I love so much. Thank you for dancing with me during Veggie Tales … my most favorite show EVER. Thank you for rocking me to sleep and for loving me when I wake up at night and can’t go back to sleep. Your kisses and hugs are life to me. Thank you for blinking both eyes back at me – that’s one of the ways I say “I love you,” you know. Thank you for holding my hand. Thank you for reading and acting out books for me – I love it. Thank you for taking showers with me. Thank you for feeding me “gogurt.” Most of all … thank you for waiting for me – for finding me – and for loving me … for being my mom. 

Love, 

Mareto 

The thing is that all of those acts that John (and Mareto) consider my gifts to him are really gifts to me. I longed for this for years. I ached to have someone to read to and rock at night … someone to depend on me. It’s not a job or a chore or a pain – it’s a gift. To be thanked for these things seems a bit off. I’m the one who needs to be expressing gratitude.

Thank you Jesus for giving me a little boy who loves me right back. Thank you for a little boy who laughs at my silly voices when I read to him. Thank you for a little boy who kisses and hugs me and blinks both eyes at me to express his delight and love. Thank you for a little boy who dances so joyfully during Veggie Tales. Thank you for a little boy to feed and nourish. Thank you for making me wait, Lord. For it’s in the waiting that I learned what a precious gift motherhood is, and how blessed I am now to have it.