Time and Life....while being a Mother

Sometimes I am overwhelmed with motherhood....in many different ways. :)

There are moments when I am overwhelmed with the duties that stretch out before me as I work at my endless "job" (which I wouldn't trade for anything, just for the record!)

...Then there are moments when I am overwhelmed with the beauty and wonder of motherhood.

To hold a little child in your arms-a little one that is your child....thinking about all that has happened in his life so far, and all that you imagine and hope for him in the future--it is truly overwhelming!

As I sat in my rocking chair again tonight, rocking my sleeping baby boy, I thought about time. A wonderful and terrible thing, all rolled together into one word.

Time makes my love for my son grow stronger. Each day as I watch him grow and change, the bond we have deepens.
Time also gives me hope for Patrick. Hope that as he grows, he will learn more and more how to behave and act. Hope that with time and growth, he will one day learn to love and follow my Lord and Savior.

Time will also turn Patrick from a baby sleeping peacefully across my chest, to a full grown man-who will eventually leave my arms and our home.

As I continued to rock, I thought also about life. It is such a beautiful thing!
How creative and good God is to have thought it all up and shared it with us!

First you are born. Quickly you grow. Childhood days pass all too quickly, and you find yourself a young adult.
At times it seems as if life is taking forever to happen-yet before you know it, you are standing beside a man or a woman, and beginning a new life - together as one.

You are young and life seems like a grand adventure-and so it can be! Yet it is not void of trials and tears.
Life is a beautiful but hard thing.

Each day passes. Days turn to weeks. Weeks turn into months, and months into years.
You work and love and try to pay the bills. You welcome into your lives tiny little people, new to this world - and ready to change your life completely - in so many wonderful ways!

Sometimes, throughout it all, we fall into thinking that we are "so old" - yet we are still so young! Kids really-yet with kids of our own! We are now the ones that little faces look up to as they lisp the words "Mama" and "Daddy" It's an amazing and thrilling thing, this thing called life!

As I hold my baby close and think on these things, I realize how quickly time is flying by.
Even now, I am repeating the life of my parents. All too soon my son will be repeating mine.
It's the way of time.

All too soon Patrick will be a man. I like to think that he will be tall and handsome-probably I will think so, no matter what others think!

No longer will I be able to fix all his problems by scooping him up in my arms and holding him close.
No longer will he need my love in the same old ways. Indeed, there will probably come along another girl who will take my place in many a way....

Yes, that day will come.

But tonight I am rocking my little boy.
Tonight time is standing still for half an hour.
I want to remember these moments....

How much my little Paddy needs me....
how sometimes all he needs is just to be picked up and held - by me or his daddy....

How simple his life really is at this moment in time.

What a privilege it is to be a mother! How fulfilling it is to be the caregiver and need-meeter of this one little boy in the world. To be on call for him, 24/7.....
The one who gets him up in the morning and helps him dress....
To dry his tears after he trips and falls.....
To be the one at the end of the day to lay him in his bed and stroke his little face.....to whisper the words "God bless and keep you" as I leave him for the night in his little white crib....

I couldn't ask for a better way to spend my days! My heart overflows with love for this child of mine.

I love this life, with all it's joys and pains. I love being a mother.