Happy Mother's Day

Thanks to effects of cold medicine, I am having a lot of trouble sleeping tonight. Emma also woke up around 2:30 and was apparently having a bad dream that required me to rock and sooth her. I think she was dreaming about riding something, because she kept moving her legs like she was paddling her tractor or her tricycle and saying "ride, ride." We moved on to the rocking chair and had a little momma time and she fell right back to sleep. Her little snoring is so adorable and when I look at her face reflected in the glow of the nightlight, I just melt.




Looking at her and being UNABLE to sleep, I couldn't help but think about Mother's Day and many of things that go along with it.




I am one of the lucky ones. I have a great mother. She is a Christian first and foremost. She lives her faith and you don't have to be around her long to know that she has something that everyone should want, FAITH. Even when the times are hard and she is taking care of her husband who isn't the man she married 16 years ago after my father died. He is a man who everyday is becoming more forgetful hindered by the effects of a horrible disease. Yet my mother continues to try to look for the good things and takes such good care of him. She is an inspiration to me and others and I love her so much.




I am also lucky to have a Godly mother-in-law who raised a son that became my husband and the father of my kids. She did a great job helping to shape the man he has become and I hope that someday my daughter-in-laws will think the same thing about me. We'll see......





But while I have been laying in the bed unable to sleep, I began thinking about mothers and I couldn't help but think about Emma's birth mother as well as other birth mothers. God brought to my mind the mother of Moses, his Hebrew birth mother, Jochebed. I kept thinking about the sacrifice that she made to protect him from the curse of death placed on the Hebrew boys. She was able to keep him for 3 months without him being found and killed, but in those 3 months I am sure that she worried everyday that he would be discovered and put to death. I believe that when she couldn't keep him in a longer, she made the ultimate sacrifice and placed him in a little "ark" that she made and covered with pitch to keep him safe and she let him go.




I think about Emma's birth mother and how I may never know the real story behind her decisions to let Emma go. I have my theories and whether they are right or wrong, I don't know and really don't care. I choose to believe that she had a mother's heart and did what she had to do for her baby. I believe many, if not most, birth mothers make that decision. I am thankful that it's not a decision that I have ever had to make. I am also thankful that I have been blessed by the decision that she made. Because of her sacrifice, I have the opportunity to raise a little girl to grow up to become the best she can be. Yes, her birth mother could have probably done the same thing and even done it better in her own culture, but that wasn't allowed to happen. So now I have the duty and obligation to raise this child to be the best she can be. I owe that to a woman that I will most likely never meet.





So Moses goes on to be one of the greatest men in the Bible. He was sacrificed by his birth mother and then adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. The "irony" of it all is that his birth mother was selected to be his nursemaid and was able to nurse him and love him that much longer. It's believed that he could have been nursed for up to 4-5 years (WOW - way to go Hebrew women). I think that in that time she must have been teaching him and molding him to become the man he became. I also want to believe that even though Pharaoh's daughter might not have been living the life she should have been, she became one of the first adoptive mothers and an example to all women. She took a child that wasn't hers biologically and was able to love him and nurture him. That isn't easy for a lot of people. That is one of the most frequently used excuses for not adopting. "I don't think I can love him/her like I would my own." Well, let me just say, THAT IS NOT THE CASE! Yes, I had a few issues during the first days, but those were mainly related to the environment that we were in and the stress we were under, but God allowed my heart to be completely filled up with love for a little girl that my womb never knew. And that is the sum of adoption. A baby doesn't have to grow inside of you to be yours. I don't know exactly how God does that, but He does. It never ceases to amaze me.




Well, between the cold medicine and the late night with my girl who I didn't mention is the one who gave me the cold, I have written a post that is a all over the place. However, it's what is in my heart and mind and this is my blog, so I guess it doesn't really matter.




For all those moms out there, the ones who will have their children near today and the ones who won't. For the ones that have sacrificed to allow their children to have a better life, for the ones who have lost their children to the curse of death, I say thank you. Thank you for the sacrifices that you make and the love that you share. Thank you for those moments that you don't beat the children even when they might deserve it:) Thank you for loving them even when you don't get a lot in return (think teenage years). Thank you for going through the fire and coming out burned at times. I believe that God will have a special place in Heaven dedicated to mothers.




I believe that place will be a spa or a least a bathroom that doesn't allow little ones to interrupt.