Mother's Day

Ah, Mother’s Day! 

A day just for moms everywhere. Where dads try their best to take over parental responsibilities. Where mothers get to let go for at least a little bit. Where, later that day, dads sheepishly admit to their wives that, well, being a mom is hard.

We had the day planned … planned, I tell you. To start, our lovely church decided that the dads would pinch hit for the moms in kid’s ministry (normally a mom job). After church, Kristine had an afternoon with both of our mother’s all set up at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Lunch, flowers, walking, being outside, the three of them enjoying just being with each other, probably all wondering aloud how strange it is to be around such other great moms. Seriously folks, the three of them put together are like a Superhero-sized team of Mom greatness. If there were a Mom Olympics, the judges would throw out the rulebook and give each of them gold medals. Maybe two each.

Then, well, a little thing called parenting happened.

Saturday started off normal but turned in to, well, not what we planned for. I’ll spare the details, but suffice to say all that great stuff about finally relaxing during a church service, about being with nature and flowers and lunch and conversation and laughing with each other, about just being for a few hours without the kids. Yeah, none of that happened. But at least we have a really, really clean house.

But the shame of it all is that Kristine missed The. Most. Amazing. Thing.

Remember that church I told you about? They let me know Saturday that they were going to give Kristine a gift during the service. I thought “Hey, that’s really nice. The mom’s will all get a little gift during service. How sweet!” Well, nope, that didn’t happen either. Before the sermon our Pastor gave a short intro speech to the congregation about wanting to honor a specific mom for her service to the church. For her dedication to the kid’s ministry. For showing up each week happy. For working hard to make sure that other people’s kids are safe, are learning, are growing. For having the longest commute of anyone in the congregation (36 miles! One way!!). And then again for turning right around and returning to Atlanta on Sunday nights to go to small group (on a side note, she wouldn’t miss small group for the world. As she’s said time and time again – that’s her church).

Yep, that’s Kristine. I couldn’t have described her better myself. I know, I already knew all these things about her. But there is something extra special, something truly moving in watching her be honored in front of and next to all the other great moms at our church for her dedication. For her commitment. For her service. And well, for her all around awesomeness. All the things I’m privileged to see everyday. If our kids turn out to be half the woman she is, well, that's winning in the parenting department.

So, maybe it wasn’t the Mother’s Day she had in mind. Maybe the best-laid plans went to waste this weekend. But the most amazing thing happened anyway. And next week is our anniversary and we’ve already been offered baby-sitting services by, well, those other awesome mom’s Kristine was supposed to go the Botanical Gardens with.

Did I tell you how awesome the moms in my life are?

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Happy Mother’s Day!