As I've mentioned before, I've always wanted to be a mom. In fact, as a girl scout in second grade I answered the ol' "What do you want to be when you grow up?" question with "A mom." In my senior yearbook from high school my answer to that same question is explicitly displayed next to my photo as "The World's Greatest Mommy!" Many of my friends used to call me "Mama Sheila" due to my motherly personality. Before I got pregnant, my worst fear was not being able to have children someday. (Turns out that was a very unnecessary fear!) And I still tell people that the only real reason I went to college was to meet my future husband so that I could fulfill my lifelong dream of motherhood.
As much as I dreamed of being a mom and built up expectations of quintessential motherhood, actually becoming a mom was a complete kick in the pants. I learned (very quickly) that I, like everyone else on the planet, was human (not Supermom) and that motherhood is no walk in the park. Motherhood consists of lots of tears (from both mother and child), sleep deprivation, baby poop, getting peed on in the face, worrying, stressing, screaming (again, by both mother and child), hand washing, bottle washing, sterilizing (of bottles and pacifiers, not of the baby :P), and a plethora of other unpleasant things. Not that I was shocked by the fact that motherhood consisted of most of these things (I used to work in the nursery at a daycare and at my church.) but I did think that I, aspiring World's Greatest Mommy, would handle them much better than I have at times.
God has really humbled me in terms of my expectations of myself as a mom and the judgement I pass on other moms. Through this blog series (not sure how long of a series it will end up being) I hope to share with my readers what God has taught me through motherhood and how He's used this new mom role to sanctify me. I'll admit that I do not always pass God's tests in motherhood, even when I recognize them as tests. I fail on a continuous basis to be the best mom for Liam. I'm so grateful though that God continues to bless me with the job of being Liam's mom despite my failures. God is so good and He loves me so much. Few things have reinforced this knowledge of God's love like motherhood.
I also hope that this series will bring encouraging comments from my readers, many of whom are moms! Please feel free (read as "I beg of you!") leave me comments that relate your own experiences as a mom and/or any encouragement you can offer. Being a mom is tough; but I know that I'm not the first or last person to become one and sometimes that alone keeps me from pulling all my hair out. ;)
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