Celebrating Mother’s Day

This year Mother’s Day has been pretty special.  On Friday at 4:30 I was wrapping up work and caught a bit of an interesting Oprah episode, thinking to myself “oh, I suppose I should go pick up my kids from daycare eventually…” and half-heartedly closed the laptop and turned off the TV.  But when I got to school I was presented with a handmade gift from Alex, and a hand decorated plant and card from Nathan, with a note he had obviously written. “Dear Mom, Happy Mother’s Day. I love you very much. Love, Nathan”  My heart melted.  Then Saturday when my husband had to run to Target for something he came home and gave Nate a bunch of flowers to present to me.  Knowing we would be spending today with my grandparents at a restaurant I don’t care for, he offered to take me to my favorite, the Olive Garden, for dinner.  And Saturday was completed with a stop at La Centerra for a mother’s day concert and ice cream by the fountains. 

Today he actually drove to the local donut shop for my breakfast, gave me a card, some gorgeous earrings and a top from the Loft, and took me to Panera for lunch.  I’m feeling almost pampered (this is exceptionally rare). 

But on my heart for several weeks, maybe even months now, have been other children needing mothers, needing love, needing physical support, and especially needing Jesus.  God has been poking my heart over and over and over, rather relentlessly through the blogosphere, my church, the TV, even the concerts I’ve been too.  As I’ve been getting rid of outgrown clothing and planning to sell Alex’s crib…I’ve been thinking maybe we should keep some things.  Because I’ve had a steadily growing desire to open our hearts and home to more children that desperately need it.  I’ve written before a bit about what I’ve been feeling, but I’ve started to say it out loud.  My other half isn’t quite in the same place as I am at the moment, but I’m praying and I believe it will come.  My desire to possibly become a foster family is a tough one to swallow…why disrupt our perfect little life? 

So today I did something I’ve been wanting to do for a long long time, and I have no idea why I haven’t.  I pulled the trigger and sponsored a child through Compassion International.  It’s something Mike can easily support, and I plan to involve our entire family.  Kristen‘s story of her trip to Kenya with Compassion, and all the comments she has been receiving about people sponsoring multiple children, have left an imprint on my heart that I could not shake.  And I realized that today, mother’s day, that is what I MOST wanted to do.  Our little girl’s name is Mbeyu, and she’s 7 years old, from Kenya.  I can’t wait to get to know her…I’ve always wanted to have a little girl in my life.

24 thoughts on “Celebrating Mother’s Day”

  1. I read @Wearethatfamily’s tweet about your sponsorship, and my husband and I just signed up to sponsor a little 8 yr olf boy in Ghana. It must be God’s will because he shares my son’s birthday and love of soccer!

    Who says Twitter is worthless nonsense!

    God bless you and your beautiful family.

    Happy Mother’s Day

  2. I read @Wearethatfamily’s tweet about your sponsorship, and my husband and I just signed up to sponsor a little 8 yr olf boy in Ghana. It must be God’s will because he shares my son’s birthday and love of soccer!

    Who says Twitter is worthless nonsense!

    God bless you and your beautiful family.

    Happy Mother’s Day

  3. I read @Wearethatfamily’s tweet about your sponsorship, and my husband and I just signed up to sponsor a little 8 yr olf boy in Ghana. It must be God’s will because he shares my son’s birthday and love of soccer!

    Who says Twitter is worthless nonsense!

    God bless you and your beautiful family.

    Happy Mother’s Day

  4. So fantastic!! I cannot wait to share photos of my son playing soccer with our sponsored little girl 🙂 Seriously I am so happy that I finally did it, and that my post encouraged others!

  5. So fantastic!! I cannot wait to share photos of my son playing soccer with our sponsored little girl 🙂 Seriously I am so happy that I finally did it, and that my post encouraged others!

  6. So fantastic!! I cannot wait to share photos of my son playing soccer with our sponsored little girl 🙂 Seriously I am so happy that I finally did it, and that my post encouraged others!

  7. Well done. We have four children through two different organizations. If I may offer some advice, use this as tool for teaching your children. I remind mine how lucky they are in comparison, but also to teach them the lesson of compassion and to care for others.

  8. Well done. We have four children through two different organizations. If I may offer some advice, use this as tool for teaching your children. I remind mine how lucky they are in comparison, but also to teach them the lesson of compassion and to care for others.

  9. Well done. We have four children through two different organizations. If I may offer some advice, use this as tool for teaching your children. I remind mine how lucky they are in comparison, but also to teach them the lesson of compassion and to care for others.

  10. What a great Mother’s day. I probably never told you that I asked your father to take in a foster child! Congratulations on your new Compassion Child. Great idea!!! Love you, Mom

  11. What a great Mother’s day. I probably never told you that I asked your father to take in a foster child! Congratulations on your new Compassion Child. Great idea!!! Love you, Mom

  12. What a great Mother’s day. I probably never told you that I asked your father to take in a foster child! Congratulations on your new Compassion Child. Great idea!!! Love you, Mom

  13. What a great Mother’s day. I probably never told you that I asked your father to take in a foster child! Congratulations on your new Compassion Child. Great idea!!! Love you, Mom

  14. What a great Mother’s day. I probably never told you that I asked your father to take in a foster child! Congratulations on your new Compassion Child. Great idea!!! Love you, Mom

  15. What a great Mother’s day. I probably never told you that I asked your father to take in a foster child! Congratulations on your new Compassion Child. Great idea!!! Love you, Mom

  16. We sponsored our child last year and it has been so great. Our little girl lives in Haiti and we were worried sick after the hurricane; that’s when when know she really was part of our family. We plan on sponsoring another child for our younger daughter’s birthday this year. Great idea for Mother’s day.

  17. We sponsored our child last year and it has been so great. Our little girl lives in Haiti and we were worried sick after the hurricane; that’s when when know she really was part of our family. We plan on sponsoring another child for our younger daughter’s birthday this year. Great idea for Mother’s day.

  18. We sponsored our child last year and it has been so great. Our little girl lives in Haiti and we were worried sick after the hurricane; that’s when when know she really was part of our family. We plan on sponsoring another child for our younger daughter’s birthday this year. Great idea for Mother’s day.

  19. We sponsored our child last year and it has been so great. Our little girl lives in Haiti and we were worried sick after the hurricane; that’s when when know she really was part of our family. We plan on sponsoring another child for our younger daughter’s birthday this year. Great idea for Mother’s day.

Comments are closed.