After all the little kids are in bed coffee ice cream snack.
“Young women, your mothers adore you. They see in you the promise of future generations. Everything you accomplish, every challenge you overcome brings them pure joy. And likewise your worries and heartaches are their worries and heartaches.”
-Russell Ballard
Guess what? She may hate this picture. I hope not because I love it. This is my oldest baby and my first girl. This girl is so much farther ahead in her life than I was at her age. She’s smarter, funnier, kinder, can hold babies better, meal plan, and run a large family home better than I could at her age or even older. And the quote is true, everything she accomplishes and every challenge she overcomes does indeed bring me great joy. When she’s worried and chews her bottom lip, it chew my heart up. When she’s scared and acts too brave to really be believable, it scares me…Motherhood has turned me inside out and upside down. I once told someone, as soon as they handed her to me in the hospital, I knew why I was here. To some, that seem like I’m bragging or they may feel bad because they didn’t have that profound realization. We all have different paths that bring us to motherhood…please do not compare our paths. You have no idea the one that led to me mine…and I in turn don’t know yours. So when I say, “I knew why I had been created,” it’s not an exaggeration. It was a confirmation, that all the hard work I had put into myself spiritually and emotionally was for this moment and my little family…It felt like crossing the finish line of a very difficult race thus far…only to realize I was actually running a marathon towards something greater.
*I know this is a grainy, imperfect picture and the colors are off. I also know I love my subject and catching her in her late night element was joy.
Leane says
Thank you for the wonderful quote – keeping it near to share with my newly 21 yo daughter one day. Love the photo and can see why you do too! (I’d called it special effects instead of imperfect 🙂
Jenny says
Oh thank you Leane, I like your wording much better than mine!