Have a happy one! Na, I’m just kidding.

Being a mom is weird. We spend 18 or so years raising them in the way they should go and we are tough as nails through it. Tough in that, as a mom you experience things most people would pay to avoid. You know, like the diaper that was almost but not quite in time fastened or the realization on the way up I-75 at 65 mph that giving the one in the car seat behind you a hot dog and Koolade in 90° weather wasn’t such a good idea. Heaven forbid they bleed! If that happened in my house, they’d be shaken off, spit in the cut, and shoved back on the field. Knowing what I know and having lived what I’ve lived, I think you will agree that it’s fair to say if you as a mother just knew the vocabulary, you’d pass the MCATs on the first try.

But every single time I think of my sons now, 18 years after the photo above and now that they are grown and not a major responsibility (in terms of who’s paying the bills), I am moved to tears. Does that happen to you? I hope it does. It tears me up knowing that somehow, definitely by grace, I was given the responsibility of children. I don’t mean the normal, every day care for children because those closest to me know I didn’t do it that way, but I mean real responsibility. The fears, cheers, and with the onset of the teens, jeers. You are 100% lock, stock, and barrel, soul tied to a human being. Ruined to life as you knew it. Forever changed.  That’s how I hope you feel about your kids, today and every day.

I hope you laugh, and cry, and have your breath taken away, just like I have today. Not only did both Sam and Dan send me a Mother’s Day text, they did so at an hour when I know most guys their age aren’t up yet. I thank God for the gift of thoughtful children in spite of me. I am blessed.