One of Those Mommy Moments

Yup...I totally wore these two flip-flops today.  In public.  One black Teva.  One brown Rainbow.  Lovely.  


The best part is that I noticed after leaving the house.  After driving to the movie theater.  After meeting two friends from church and seeing one of our elders.  After the movie was two-thirds over and Em asked to go potty.  While in the bathroom, I finally looked down at my feet and noticed that I was unwittingly making quite the fashion statement.


I guess in the rush to get ready, coordinate cars and the car seat with Jeremy, and make sure that my child kept her shoes on long enough to make it out the door with something on her feet, I wasn't paying much attention to which shoes I grabbed out of the closet.  It was one of those mommy moments.  There have been quite a few of those moments since the day (three years ago today!) that Jeremy and I arrived in Florida to attend Emma's birth.


Moments like the one where I find myself really needing a Kleenex at the same second that Miss Emma is really needing a Kleenex.  So, I wipe her nose on one side and then blow mine on the other.  Great solution.


Moments like the one where I notice a gooey, half-chewed Cheerio stuck to the front of Em's shirt just as we're arriving somewhere important with no trash can in sight.  You've eaten regurgitated Cheerios before too, right?


Moments like the one where Emma begs and begs for a quarter for the gumball machine.  When she finally puts the quarter in, the little blue gumball spins slowly around and around the inside of the gumball machine, pops out the tiny swinging door, and rolls across the floor of the grocery store until I stop it with my sweaty flip-flop.  I brush it off and hand it to Emma.  (After all, it was only on the floor for like 1.2 seconds so the Five-Second Rule totally applies.)  She puts the little blue gumball in to her mouth and realizes it is actually a gigantic blue gumball.  She tries and tries to chew but only succeeds in slobbering a lot and breaking off a tiny corner.  She pulls it out of her mouth and looks up at me.  "Here, Mommy, help me."  Needless to say, I end up with a lot of blue spit all over my hands and a germy, half-chewed gumball in my mouth.  Yum.


I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had these (right?).  The "I Can't Believe I ate/smelled/talked about/looked at/touched/tasted/changed That Moments".  They're part of being a mommy.  And, they're 100% worth it.  They're worth it because - as much as it feels like it sometimes - they aren't the only kind of mommy moments.  Just when you think you've turned into a walking mass of spit-up who will never again go the bathroom alone, you have one of the other kind of mommy moments.  The amazing, incredible, I-will-remember-this-for-a-lifetime moments.


Moments like the one where Emma climbs into my lap, takes my face in both of her chubby palms, and says, "I love you soooo much."


Moments like the one where Emma spontaneously starts praying in her car seat.  Jeremy and I hear her say, "Jesus, get my brother and sister.  I have lots of toys in my playroom; I will share them."


Moments like the one where I wake up to find Emma climbing into my bed to cuddle.  She leans over close to my face and gives me her version of an Eskimo kiss.  She rubs her nose against mine and tries to kiss my lips at the same time.  Slobbery wet sweetness.


I am thankful for every moment of being a mommy - Eskimo Kiss moments and mismatched flip-flop moments.  I wouldn't trade any of it for the days when I took long, hot showers (without an audience) and had time to look at my shoes before heading out the door.  Being a mommy isn't always fun.  It isn't always easy.  But when I hold my squirmy girl and feel her arms, hot from the playing in the sun, tight around my neck...when I see kindness beginning to take root in her little heart...when I watch her smile with pride because of something I have played a little part in helping her learn, I am reminded that my job is important.  I have an irreplaceable spot in my daughter's heart that is worth all the times she tells me, "Mommy, I peed in my shoes."  I wouldn't trade being a mommy for anything.


**********************************************************************************
Keep reading for a quick adoption update...I just got an email from Nina saying that we are officially registered as potential adoptive parents in our country.  This is good news because it means that all of our paperwork was done correctly, and we don't have to get anything redone (or make any more trips to the state capital...for now, at least).   The SDA is scheduled to close next Monday, July 11.  I've heard that the longest the closure can last (by law) is three months, so the new adoption entity should be up and running sometime between next week (I wish!) and October 11.  There have not yet been any changes to the special needs list; please keep praying that more special needs are added and that God would clearly speak to our hearts if we need to consider a change in direction.  Thanks.