Tuesday, January 30, 2007

One of the gifts of being a mother

"You'll bestow on this family the wonder that lets parents see though child's eyes, helping them recapture the innocence and moments of sweet surprise."

from 'the Gift of an Angel' by Marianne Richmond

This quote is from a book my sister gave me when I was pregnant and it tells the story of God choosing a guardian angel for a child right before the child is born. The line above is one of the duties that God assigns his angel. The book is very sweet and I cried and blubbered everytime I read it when I was pregnant. Of course, I cried several times a day the first five months of my pregnancy so it didn't take much to trigger the waterworks. As I watched Manther last night, the truth that these words express became clear to me. We were at the library for storytime and stayed a few minutes to play on the computer. It was dark when we left and it was snowing. The snow was big and fluffy and the flakes were falling thick and fast. Manther stopped walking and held her arms out to watch the snow collect and melt in the folds of her hands and coat. We live in Michigan, so she knew what it was and was repeating "snow...snow...snow" softly to herself. After a few minutes, I convinced her to keep walking. She made it a few feet and then looked up and saw the patterns of swirling snow in the lights of the parking lot. She squealed with delight and ran into the middle of the parking lot. She danced clumsy, toddler circles underneath the lights as she sang, "Snow!..Snow!..Snow! It has been years since I was able to be delighted by a fluffy snowstorm and I was immersed in Manther's 'wonder' and 'surprise'. This only lasted a minute because I felt I should remove my child from the middle of a parking lot at night in a snowstorm. But, a minute was long enough for me to recognize that I am truly blessed to be a mother.
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