I wrote this for the MOPS newsletter last week and I thought I'd share. Hope you enjoy!
The First “Thank-you”
We have all heard it a thousand times. In fact, it’s almost become cliché. Thought to be flippantly said by stay at home and working moms alike, so often that most people hardly give credit to the statement anymore. It goes something like this: “being a mom is such a thankless job.” In reality, one can hardly expect people who have not experienced the profound truth of this statement themselves to understand it. I know I never fully understood it, but then one day I found myself not only living out that reality but also feeling a surprising sense of emptiness and loneliness because of it. I remember in frustration sharing with my husband that although I perhaps have more responsibility now than I have ever had in my life I see almost no tangible evidence of the efforts that I am making every day, my best efforts as a new mom who sometimes feels like she doesn’t know what she’s doing. He very sweetly reminded me that the efforts I am making as a mom are more important than almost anything else, that my efforts have eternal effects. While I took comfort in those words at the time, it is sometimes hard for me to remember what he told me as I move throughout the menial tasks of the day-today.
But then one day it happened: Hayden was playing with his animal train as I was running around trying to get some housework done. In my rush to pick up toys off the floor I paused to hand Hayden the elephant for his animal train. To my surprise, as he reached up and took it from my hand he looked at my eyes, smiled and said more sweetly than I can express in words, “ganku.” That was, of course, his best effort at saying “thank-you” and my heart melted right on the spot. Since then, he says thank-you for everything! Even when I wipe his nose he looks up and me and says “ganku”. Just tonight as I was getting him ready for bed, I pulled his pajamas on and as his head popped through the shirt there was an enthusiastic “ganku”. I realize that this is just a phase, that he will not continue thanking me for everything I do for the rest of his life. If you are like me, though, you know that I do not do what I do for a thank-you. For now, this sweet expression of his reminds me that the little things I do are important in shaping a child with a heart that is pleasing to the Lord, a child who seeks obediently after God’s own heart. But even though I know it might not last much longer, I am enjoying it while it lasts, and when it comes to thank-you’s, I will take what I can get!
Tonight Matt and I got Hayden dressed in his costume and took him to the party our church was having. This year he was dressed up as Sully from Monsters Inc. He doesn't have any special connection with this character nor has he ever seen the movie, however I found the costume at a garage sale for $1 and decided it would be just perfect!
Today after nap time Hayden and I washed all of the apples we got at the Orchard yesterday and then sampled one. Hayden LOVES apples and wanted to dig into one as soon as I set the bag on the counter. Here he is enjoying the "fruits" of our labor:
Today we had a wonderful day as a family at a local organic apple orchard and pumpkin patch. Unfortunately you'll have to take my word for it. You see, we got LOTS of great pictures (I know, because I looked through them a couple of times in the car on the way home). But somewhere between looking, turning the camera off, putting it in my purse, and taking the memory card out to make a blog post, the pictures were gone! I have no idea what happened, but all the pictures we had taken on previous days were there, just none from today. So as sad as I am, I'll share our day in just words.
Today while Matt was mowing the lawn Hayden was following behind with his plastic golf bag, which has wheels on the bottom. I decided to go inside to get the camera to take advantage of the photo opp. When I came back outside, I found a very stubborn little boy sitting in front of the lawn mower refusing to move. (I don't know what prompted his change in mood, but sometimes with Hayden it doesn't take much). It didn't take long for him to move, although begrudgingly, after we told him if he didn't get up we were going inside. The stubbornness didn't fade from his face however, so I took the opportunity to capture the full color of his personality.
Hayden and I headed up to Boise today for a consignment sale that comes around twice a year with the objective of finding him some more winter clothes. After flying through as quickly as we could and trying to keep him entertained, we came away with a pretty good selection and I was $3 under budget! Hayden was most excited about the Little Tikes recycling truck that I bought for him and he has been playing with it all afternoon. When I told him I wanted to take a picture of him with his new truck he ran over and stood by it and said "cheese!" He is getting so grown up.
Hayden likes to put on Matt's and my shoes when he finds them lying around. Anyone who knows Matt or I knows two things: 1) we leave our shoes lying around a lot and 2) we have big feet! This makes for some very entertaining times around our house. As you can see Hayden literally has some big shoes to fill, although unfortunately with his genes I'm sure that won't be a problem. Another note about the following set of pictures: Hayden has recently discovered that he can take his pants off all by himself. Consequently he doesn't have pants on very much anymore. Did I mention we have lots of entertainment around the house?
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