The Mother Lode

Saturday night David and I were talking about our plans for Sunday. We're not usually ones to make a big deal over the greeting card companies' holidays, so Sunday promised to be a pretty low-key event: church, lunch, rest, play. The usual. But as we ran through all the possible options, David, in a fit of inspiration, looked at me and said, "Hey - do you want for me to take Alex to church tomorrow and you can stay here?"

And I promise you that before he even finished his sentence, I screamed, "OKAY!"

Y'all know that I love my church. I love GOING to church with my family. But getting to stay home by myself? Unexpectedly?

That's a SERIOUS reason to praise the Lord. :-)

So my day started with some coffee, and some sweet presents, and then the little man and David headed out for breakfast and church.

Then I had church right here in my own house. I cranked up my music, started making my way through my to-do list, and I thanked Him and praised Him all morning long. I really did, y'all. You may not have known that laundry could be an act of worship, but I’m telling you that yesterday, in my house, it was. This is a crazy time of year for me, and it blessed my soul to be able to do a little “freestyle” worship in solitude. Totally energizing.

And if that weren’t enough joy for one day, yesterday afternoon something happened to me that has never happened before.

When I was a little girl and would watch Miss America, I would wonder why the winner always cried. I didn’t understand that. I mean, if you’re happy, IF SOMEONE PUTS A LARGE CROWN ON YOUR HEAD, why in the world would you cry? And how could the emotions come on that fast? I wondered if they secretly practiced their “pageant cry” in the mirror - if they worked for hours to get the whole crying-laughing-streaming tears routine just like they liked it.

I did experience "the joyful cry" when we had the ultrasound that showed us we were having a boy, but the crying wasn’t unexpected because I was an emotional wreck heading into my doctor’s appointment that day. So it didn't come at me from out of nowhere...I sort of expected to bawl my eyes out, truth be told.

Well, yesterday afternoon the phone rang, and my aunt was on the other end. She said, “Guess what I got for Mother’s Day?”

And I’m thinking, well, it's a pretty wide open field - I honestly have no idea.

So I played along and said, “I don’t know. What?”

She said, “I got a yellow fleece snuggly, and a yellow bib that says, ‘I love my grandma.’”

Which means.

My cousin Paige.

Is.

Pregnant.

Her first baby.

14 weeks along.

Y’all, I don’t know what emotional reservoir that news tapped into, but I have never cried tears of pure joy so spontaneously in my life. To know how badly Paige has wanted this baby, to know that she is the most tenderhearted person in the free world and will be the BEST. MAMA. EVIR., to know that Alex will have another cousin, but more than anything to know the joy that is in front of her and how it will absolutely knock her socks off...well, I had a moment.

All I needed to complete said moment was a crown, a scepter, and a large bouquet of roses, because I am telling you, I had that whole Miss America cry DOWN. I perfected it in mere minutes.

So for the rest of the day, no matter what Alex did, I would think about Paige, and everything she has to look forward to. I guess I was talking about the big news a lot, because Alex kept saying, “What’s tomorrow, Mama? PAIGE’S! BABY!”

After supper I made homemade chocolate pudding – it’s my Mamaw Davis’ recipe, and it is slap-yo-mama good (appropriate, isn’t it, for Mother’s Day?) – and apparently the pudding made such an impression on Alex that he thanked God for it twice last night when he said his prayers.

And as I listened to Alex say his prayers - as he thanked God for the chocolate pudding, and the chocolate pudding that got on his shirt, and for outside, and for colors, and for Paige, and Paige's baby, and for carseat (yeah, I know - but he thanked Him for it), and for family, and for playing trains, and for tub, and bed, and pajamas, and Cheetos, and about 20 other things - I had church, in my own house, for the second time on Mother's Day.

Sweet, sweet Paige. And that sweet little baby. The two of them have absolutely no idea what they're going to mean to each other. So many blessings, so much joy - just right around the corner for their family.

It was a really, really good day.