A Mother's Day as a Family of 3

My VERY first Mother's Day, I was pregnant.

My SECOND Mother's Day, Nick was in Afghanistan.

But FINALLY...

This Mother's Day, I got to spend it as a whole family.

My morning started off with an amazing pancake breakfast made by my wonderful husband.

He even wrote "MOM" with pancake batter.

And my Dannika loved the pancakes so much that when we told her she couldn't have anymore (because she hadn't touched her eggs or her sausage) she threw a fit....

(see below)

 She is quite the faker...

 And so dramatic...

After breakfast we went to our little church by the beach (Pacific Coast Church).

We listened to an AMAZING sermon about being a mother.

The lesson of the day came as...

"Your children are not yours. They are simply just a loan to you from God."

A truer statement could not be said.

I won't go too much into it, but if you think about mothers in the bible...

there are some of the most AMAZING, most COURAGEOUS women I could have known!

Let me leave you with this...

Can YOU drop your child off at a church at the age of 3 at the mercy of our Lord and REJOICE about it?!

Can YOU drop your child in a basket and push it down a river and have enough faith in God to take care of YOUR child?

and lastly...

Can YOU raise your child knowing that one day, He will be nailed on a cross in front of your very eyes to hold the burden of our world's sins on his shoulders?!

...just think about it, will ya?...

It was such a great sermon, and it meant a lot to me.

It made me cry.

It made me laugh.

It made me really appreciate the gift of motherhood from God.

Let me tell ya...

Motherhood has not been my strong point.

I have never been that type of girl who says "I was born to be a mother" or "I was meant to be a mother".

But each day, I put my faith in God...
there are days when I feel like Him and the world are against me...
I have to constantly remind myself there is a method to the madness...

I have just come to roll with the punches and face each new challenge of raising a holy child while in the Marine Corps.

yep...I said HOLY CHILD...(some days, I feel that she's more devil than holy...*insert laugh*)

Some days, I want to scream.

And some days, I want to REJOICE...

But...

at the end of every day...

I couldn't be more blessed.

How could I be angry or frustrated when my daughter at the ripe age of 21 months knows how to...

P-R-A-Y

I know grown men and women who have a hard time doing this....

I have a hard time with this sometimes...

I learn something from my little girl every - single - day...

I know it's God's little way of "setting me straight" when I'm going off the path He wants me to go.

Today was a wonderful day...

thanks to this wonderful guy...

Thanks...

And thank YOU Dannika Jane for making me grow up and become a woman...a mother...and a better Christian.

"We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…"