Motherhood Is
Motherhood is: joy and pain, mingled together in a mess of marvelous. It is heart-wrenching and holy. It is the happiest you’ve ever been. It is pure exhaustion. It is knowing, off the top of your head, what is on his will-eat list right now. It is keeping track of shoe sizes. It is your heart walking around this world outside of your body... forever. It is Goldfish crackers and Cheerios always on the van floor. It is putting them to bed with a sigh of relief and immediately missing them (so you end up scrolling through pictures of them on your phone😆) It is being the one who gets to see, enjoy, and remember all of somebody’s “firsts.” It is hearing little footsteps every morning and feeling a warm tiny body crawl into your bed and snuggle up close. It is feeling Mama Bear protective on the playground; yearning and pleading in your soul that “they” will see and understand and welcome in and love on your baby. It is using wipes for everyyything. It is catching your breath when you watch him sleep and his profile is identical to that 20 week ultrasound scan you used to stare at. It is grief as their baby-self slips away before your eyes. It is indescribable happiness because they’re growing up, beautifully. It is laughter through tears. It is sticky kisses and neck hugs. It is balancing homemade, organic smoothies for breakfast and a Happy Meal for lunch. It is dreaming big-as-the-sky for someone else, even bigger than you ever dreamed for yourself. It is keeping track of all the things: sunscreen and socks and sippy cups and storybooks, his favorite Iron Man toy, her dearest Barbie. It’s that fleeting, intoxicating newborn baby head smell. ✨ It is bottling up every single memory, moment, word, day, hour, minute — “I don’t want to miss a thing.” 💓 “She treasured up all of these things and pondered them in her heart.” It is “getting to be the one” they go-to and cry-for and someday, maybe, if all your wildest dreams come true: the one they call *first* and say, “Hey Mom, I met someone. I got accepted. I got the job. We’re having a baby.”
The Safe Haven, the Home, the Heart, the Memory-Keeper. The Mama.❤️