Eight years...

*For eight years, my life has not been my own.

*For eight years, I have napped only if I played my cards just right and the gods smiled upon me.

*For eight years, I have stared at my stretch marks in the mirror every morning and thought, "that's a bummer.."

*For eight years, I've dreamed of just leaving the house without packing a snack bag, finding someone's other shoe, filling up a sippy cup, buckling someone in or nagging them to do it themselves.

*For eight years, I've only made dinner a handful of times without hearing some level of complaining, even if it's something everyone likes.

*For eight years, I've considered the hours of 8pm to 10pm "vacation time".

*For eight years, I've cried at every Clifford episode I've ever seen.

*For eight years, I've looked into one of my daughters' eyes and known that she thinks I hung the moon.

*For eight years, I haven't entered my home to greet my family without hearing the word, "Mommy!" screamed and hear footsteps running toward me and have one or two girls jump into my arms.

*For eight years, I've watched my heart walk around outside of my body.

*For eight years I've been a mom.

I thought having a baby meant having a baby. Then the baby became a child. Then the child became a person. Motherhood is so much more than I expected - in all the good and bad ways I could possibly mean! No one has ever made me crazier than my own children, but no one has come close to stirring my heart the way they do. There is nothing I want to do more in this life than to give my daughters a safe, loving, Godly, healthy environment in which they can grow and thrive and become women who honor their Lord.

So Avery turned eight today. I took her to get her ears pierced. It was a special mommy-daughter date and I soaked in every minute of it! Allie and I get a lot of time together alone - A LOT. I love that Allie and I can have that relationship and can spend so much time together, but Avery and I hardly ever spend time alone anymore. So I was looking forward to our afternoon. We shopped, tried on lotion, got her ears pierced, and had lunch together. It's true - I absolutely LOVE this girl! I love that I can take my maturing, growing girl out for a girlie afternoon and we can both have a wonderful time :) Thank you, Lord!