Well here they are. Aren’t they glorious?
I call them the Fab Five, Team Tischler, The Triple Threat and Double Trouble, the Love Bunch, and each and every one of them “sweetie.” Yes, I’m a softie.
I’m the parent who says, “Oh, she didn’t mean it,” or “He just didn’t understand” [that you didn’t want him to dismantle the train track you spent 5 hours assembling, etc.]. I’m the one who has to be physically restrained if someone criticizes one of my kids. Yes, I’m that Mom. I’m the mom who cries in every ARD meeting, who cries at dance recitals, and who cheers embarrassingly loud at softball games. I’m the mom who would let all 5 of my kids sleep with me if Daddy didn’t object. I’m the mom who thinks their feet don’t stink, and they always look beautiful. I’m the mom who never wants her kids to leave home.
And yet . . . I have a job to do, sigh. I am trying to raise adults who will be responsible citizens, good parents, and signal-bearers for their faith. I am raising kids who understand prejudice but who themselves follow the edict, “Love your neighbor.” I am raising adults who will hold jobs, hopefully complete college, care for their kids, love their family, and not suffer. I know I can’t prevent them from suffering, but I am hopeful that preemptively teaching them things about life, human nature, God, and faith can help them suffer less. I don’t want them to do all their adult learning in the “school of hard knocks.”
So I am sometimes the mom who takes away phones or tablets, who raises my voice, and who says something I have to apologize for. I hate it when I lose my cool and yet, I know, they have to learn about that too. Bosses and teachers and lovers aren’t always fair. Life is not fair. Times are hard. People we love let us down or embarrass us. But I don’t love it when I am the one teaching those lessons.
Yet here they are, the fab five. Five people I never dreamed I could love so much. Five people I can’t imagine how I ever lived without. When people who formed their families in the usual way ask me “Was I afraid I wouldn’t love them?,” I say honestly, “Yes, of course. But I’d have had the same fear giving birth.” Five little strangers came into my home and took over my heart. They are maturing into amazing bigger people, and I love them more every day. I am grateful.
Photo credit: Dreena T
