I am a Real Mom

Through my work at Hearts at Home, I've been thinking a lot about Real Moms. I wrote a column about what it means to be a Real Mom that was in our local newspaper a few weeks ago and Hearts is having a contest to collect stories of real moms to be published on our blog.

I had one of those real mom moments this past weekend at the Kids Expo.

Asher and I went to the expo with some friends. Even though Asher and Moses are almost exactly the same age, Moses displayed a no fear attitude when it came to climbing on the bouncy toys. Asher needed more encouragement to try them out.

We eventually convinced Asher to climb to the top of the mountainous bouncy slide. He did a great job climbing up... and that is where he stayed. Whether he was afraid to slide down or just was having fun up at the top of the slide, I'm not sure. But it soon became apparent he was not going to be coming down until they started letting the air out of the slide at the end of the expo.

That left eight months pregnant mommy with few choices for retrieving her little boy. We tried sending his friends up to coax him down, but they weren't convincing enough and he remained way up there bouncing around near the ceiling.

So I did what a real mom would do. Yes, Baby and I climbed the bobbing and swaying ladder to the top of that slide in front of the thousands of onlookers (well maybe there weren't quite that many in line at the time). I grabbed my fearful son and slid down that bouncy slide to safety.

We both suffered plastic burns on our arms, but we were soon safely on the ground. I'm thinking I was the only pregnant woman to ride the bouncy slide that day!

But the choice to embarrass myself didn't require much deliberation - because real moms rescue their children from the tops of bouncy slides!

Loving our weirdness

In grade school, I proudly wore a "I love being weird" pin on my frosted jean jacket. My friends and I daily told each other we were weird and took it as a huge compliment. I don't know how I feel about being weird now, and Walter has asked me not to call Asher weird. So, I'll change my choice of words to unordinary.

I haven't posted pictures for a while and as I scrolled through our folder trying to decide which one to choose, I became overwhelmed with how unordinary they are! First, I don't have too many choices to post because in most of them, Asher does not have pants on. We are still working on the potty training thing and I've gotten too lazy and my belly is too big to put underpants and long pants back on him every five minutes.

But I did find a fun one of Walter and Asher when they played in the snow a few weeks ago.

I think a couple of clarifications are needed.

1. Asher is not singing, just smiling in an "unordinary" way.

2. Walter is not incapable of building a snowman that actually looks like a snowman. This is not a snowman actually. It is a chess piece, built by request. A king to be exact. Can't you tell?

I know every family has their own unordinary ways. Aren't these what make us love each other all the more?

It's a Baby Day!

My friend had a baby today.

I've celebrated when many of my friends and family members have added babies to their families, but today is a special celebration that deserves nothing but pure joy.

This little baby represents redemption. There is good in this world and God does not abandon us even when it seems He has.

Over the past couple of years I've shared with my dear friend Rita as she walked through so much pain coming to terms with a miscarriage and then letting go of sweet Henry who never breathed a breath on this earth. And then through the past nine months, we've continued to share our amazement and unbelief that good will really come to life even as we can no longer drink caffeine at our coffee escapes and our bellies grow.

Until today it didn't seem real that she would ever finally have a baby in her arms. But I've seen his picture. He is perfect and beautiful and breathing. I will go to visit him tomorrow and don't know if I'll be able to hold back tears, especially as I wonder if it actually will be real that I will soon hold another baby in my arms.