Are They All Yours? Blessings.

Happy Mother's Day!  At our house it has been the BEST MOTHER'S DAY EVER! Why? I slept through the night last night, while Jeremy took all of the baby's nighttime feedings!  I seriously woke up feeling like a new woman.  Not only did I get a full night's sleep, but I also got to take a shower after I woke up and actually got dressed, dried my hair, and put on make-up before coming downstairs to NOT make breakfast. Big-J (of the JK-Crew) said, "Mom - why do you look like that?" Which can be interpreted as, "Mom, in recent weeks you have looked like someone who is on their last days - your hair in a greasy pony tale - drool stains on your face - and baby puke on your smelly t-shirt. I have completely forgotten what you normally look like."

We then gathered our happy JK Crew and headed out for a delicious brunch.  Brunch is one of my favorite meals, because it includes all of my favorite breakfast foods at a time that allows for me to get more sleep and dilly dally a bit (or in the case of having five kiddos, just to get out the door without inducing major stress).  I am going to be honest with you - the kids all looked pretty darn adorable and were so stinking good that a woman actually chased us down as we left the restaurant to tell us how precious our kids were and how amazed she was by how well behaved they were!  WOW - Happy Mother's Day (it is amazing how well behaved children can be when there is a prize of bacon and a side of fluffy pancakes involved)! We actually got a lot of stares, I think that maybe a family of 7 with children ages 3 weeks, 19 months, 4 yrs, 9 yrs & 12 yrs - happily eating out at a restaurant seems a bit out of the ordinary to people.

The hostess who seated us said, "Wow - you have a beautiful family." Followed up by a pretty standard question, "Are they all yours?"  It only took me a split second to respond, "Yes, they're all ours!" (As a side note, Jeremy gets extra mother's day bonus points, because he says this is a natural question for her to ask since I have an especially svelte figure, for having a three week old itty-bitty-Baby JS.)  "Yes, they are all ours," because for today - they are ours and we are theirs and we are a family.  If she had asked,
"Did you give birth to each of these children - vaginal, c-section, or VBAC? Or have you adopted? Or are you a foster parent? Or did you pick a few of these kids up out of a stranger's yard on the way here? Or are you just crazy people who like to take random kids out to restaurants for a good time?" she would have gotten a pretty long story with lots of gory details, dreams realized, heart-breaks, and a shout out to the Other Mothers.  However, today, she only asked "Are they all yours?" Today, I am a mother 5x blessed.  If we add in those who were once ours, with those who still are, then I am a mother 10x blessed. That, my friends, is a lot of blessings.