Oh hello little hand!

The children visited the dentist on Monday. Malachi now has a print out of his x-rayed teeth nailed to his wall and he loves this new decoration as much as an art lover cruising through Louvre’s Grand Gallery checking out the Mona Lisa. And…ya know who nailed this bad boy to the wall? Me.

Watching my kiddos personalities and passions start to surface is so much fun.

You want an x-ray of your teeth on the wall? Let’s do it! You want to do 300 backflips a day. I will film. You want to go to the gym and practice ball, again? Let me grab my key. J, you want to sleep with a creepy blue-eyed eye mask on. Be my guest, but don’t be scared when I jump and holler in the middle of the night when your little eye-masked-face is inches from my face and I awaken because you keep kicking me in the stomach.

I was reading in Exodus earlier this week. The Israelites were fighting Amalek. When Moses held up the staff, the Israelites would prevail. When he put it down, Amalek would prevail. So Aaron and Hur plopped a stone under him as a seat and then both held up one of his arms.

First off, I don’t know about you, but Warrior One (yoga talk) is a position I can hold for maybe a solid 12 seconds before thinking my arms are going to fall off; throw a staff on top of the jello arms and…nope, I’m out. So I can only imagine Moses’ gratitude for Aaron and Hur coming to support some of the weight.

So I have this incredibly fun and rewarding business I run that has allowed me to meet athletes from all over the United States from youth kiddos up through professional athletes. As I’m getting to know each athlete, one thing I normally find out is who has supported them in their athletic journey thus far. It’s always so incredible to see the deep level of gratitude they have toward those who have helped them get to where they are/want to be. Sometimes they’re parents. Sometimes coaches. Sometimes a friend. It varies, of course.

I realize as mommas we serve and we serve and we serve and then there’s that moment when you reach for your child’s hand and they don’t grab it. It’s as if they have the audacity to just cross the street walking beside you instead of hand-in-hand; as if to shout it from the rooftops that they don’t need you. It’s a really heartbreaking moment. However, one day they are going to be like, “Hey mom, how many different types of apples did you put in your apple pie?” And I’m going to be like, “Oh hello little hand…there you are!”

I’m really thankful God has chosen me to be the one in the trenches with them when things get rough, the one cheering them on when they need some encouragement, the one letting them cruise alone and figure things out when they need to cruise alone and figure things out, and the one bursting with joy when they are up on those mountain peak moments of life.

Parenthood is the strangest thing I’ve ever been a part of.

Bye friends.