Mother's Day

I had a really great weekend.  I spent time with my family(the family I made, not the one from whence I came).  I spent Friday and Saturday getting things set so that I could just relax on Sunday and enjoy everyone.  My husband did his usual sweet appreciation stuff: breakfast in bed, cards from himself and the boys (signed by James this year!), and then we spent the morning with our new Village, where the husbands all chipped in so the mothers could spend a few hours together but away from our families and just be(the exclamations of excitement when the announcement was made were so sweet).  I absolutely love getting time to just talk to other people, especially since these ladies are all really special and have characteristics that I want to possess, like being an awesome wife and woman of God.  Then I took the afternoon to myself, went to the movies alone, and OH! it was so nice.  I thought about the women who are my "mothers" and the children who made me one myself.

I love that my mom was so good to us kids.  I love that she wanted to raise us to be a certain kind of person, and that we have pretty well managed to reach adulthood and be responsible and happy and loving.  I love that my mother-in-law is a different kind of really good mom.  I love that she had three boys and that they all love her and respect her.  From them, I get ideas about how to be the best mom I can be, like how to maintain boundaries and teach manners and let my kids choose the life they want to live.  And I am so proud when I hear James speaking in sentences, because I know how hard he's worked to get to a point where he can verbalize his thoughts.  I love that I can argue with him now, when he asks, "Why not?" endlessly and I can finally say, "Because I said so, that's why not!"  I loved hearing Winston in the car yesterday carry on an entire conversation by himself.  It went like this:
"Winston, you hungry?  You want to eat, or play basketball?  Which one?  PLAY BASKETBALL!!"
and then today he changed it up a little...
"Time to sleep, or time to go to library?  You sleepy or want library?  Which one?  GO LIBRARY!!"
And then there's the baby, the foster child that was originally supposed to stay with us for maybe two months while his dad got a place to live and a job, and who is now a week away from becoming permanent custody of the state, at which point we will adopt him.  In the last week, this amazing baby has cut his first teeth, crawled, and signed "milk" for the first time!  I look at the accomplishments of my boys, and I know that they got there by their own work and personal development.  But I know that I helped facilitate that development, and I get the front row seat when they try out new skills.  I love love love being their mom.  I love that my husband agreed that I should stay home with our babies.  I love my mom friends who encourage and inspire me.  I love being a mom :)