Worth it!!!

"Sacrifice is the a and the z, and all the vowels and consonants in between of motherhood. Sacrifice is love at its best.

There is no other spirit for motherhood; no other key to unlock its doors; no other solution of its tangling problems; no other sure weapon to lay its foes low in the dust." ~S.D. Gordon

This quote above was on my mind this morning when Craig took us out to breakfast. We piled our modest-in-number family into a booth and chit chatted about various happenings and the such. The hostess, a young gal looking to be in her early 20s, came to take our drink order. She glanced around our table at Craig and I and the Fabulous Four and then back at me in shock, "Are these all yours?" As I looked around the same table, I joyfully announced, "Yes!!!". Her next question was so fitting: "Isn't it hard?" There was a look of disbelief and perhaps of feeling overwhelmed at the very thought of said children being all hers. I don't criticize her for that question or the look that went with it. There are days when I must look the same way and that same question is written all over MY face. How do you answer such a question? If I answer "No, its not hard", I'm down-right lying. If I say "Yes, it's terribly hard", one would question why its not the Fabulous One instead of the Fabulous Four that sit around our table, with room for more. A thousand thoughts went through my mind as she stood there, looking at me with expectation. There were a million things I would have liked to tell her. But time does not stand still long enough. There wasn't time to tell her that those little people looking back at her have given so much more than they have taken, that I am not the person I was pre-children (and the world is grateful for that!!!) and that life is full of hard work (for goodness sakes, I wouldn't call waitressing an easy job!!!). There wasn't time to tell her that life is not about taking the easy way and doing our best to get out of hard work. There wasn't time to tell her that these children were actually flesh-wrapped gifts from the Creator of the universe with the potential to worship at the feet of Jesus Christ for all of eternity. There just wasn't time....So I looked at my table full of gifts and said to her, "Yep, its hard but it's so worth it".

And it is! It is so worth it!