A friend recently wrote a blog about how different her life is from what her 17 year old self imagined. It made me look back to what I thought my life would be like and what I thought I wanted. When I was younger, I wanted to be a pastor's wife by 18 and start having lots of kids. Needless to say, as the years went by, I felt more and more like an old spinster. I was in such a rush to get married and have that life that I could have married someone that would have been very detrimental to my spirit and heart. Thankfully, I escaped the life I almost had.
Then I met Josh. He came in to my office one day to visit his friend, who was also my good friend. As soon as Josh left the office, I turned to Jason and asked who the hottie was. Jason, of course, got right on the phone and told Josh. The next day, a beautiful bouquet of flowers showed up with my name on them. Josh included a very sweet note.
We went on a couple of dates over the next year or so, but lost touch in between. I think I fought falling in love with him. I think subconsciously I thought that as long as I didn't fall in love, I wouldn't be the one to get hurt again. HOWEVER, he made me fall in love with him. Sneaky, sneaky man.
Today, I am SO incredibly thankful for the life I got! I may not have the ring on my finger yet, but I know this is the man I am going to marry and spend the rest of my life with. I may be 25, 7 years older than expected, but He was so worth the wait. I am happy for life's unexpected twists and turns that brought me to where I am today.
Ok, some of these are personal experience and some of them were shared with me. I'm not pointing out which are which in order to save face. LOL. But you know you're a mom if:
- You've gone through horrendous pain but forgotten all of it the instant you saw a scrunchy, grouchy, little face for the first time.
- You've gone through more cracked, bleeding, sore pain but pushed through it because the bond with your child was greater than the pain you felt.
- You've seen something gross on the floor and wondered if it was poop or something else...and smelled it to find out.
- Your baby/child peed or puked in the bed in the middle of the night, and being too exhausted to get up and change the sheets, you've thrown a towel or blanket over it and called it good.
- You've finished the left overs on your child's dinner plate.
- Realizing you forgot to give them a bite of your cookie/brownie/other good treat, you've taken a piece out of your mouth and given it to them.
- You've had a child slobber all over your cup and you still drank out of it.
- You can change a dirty diaper without throwing up because you realize that your hands are washable.
- You've smelled a baby butt because you aren't sure if that smell is coming from your baby or your significant other.
- You've let your infant pull your hair out because it comforts them while they are nursing.
- You've acted like a fool just to get a smile out of your baby.
- You've hopped across the floor on your knees, ribbitting like a frog, to get a laugh.
- You've painted and decorated paper towel rolls to make tootooroos.
- You've become more elated watching first steps, first laughs, first smiles, etc... take place than watching season finales of your favorite shows.
- You've said "I gotta go potty", even when only in the company of adults.
- And last but not least, you know you're a mom if you've experienced a greater love that you could ever have imagined and can't imagine one breath without that child in your life.
