Now I Understand

When I was a little girl, I remember my Mom always telling me how my homemade crafts or pictures meant more to her than something I could have bought at a store.

I never did completely understand why. I wondered, who wouldn't want something new from a store over some picture that was drawn on a piece of paper? I really thought she was just saying that to make me feel like my drawing was more worthy than those diamond earrings at the store.

Not that I had enough money to buy her diamond earrings.

Now that I am a mother, I completely understand how a child's artwork or craft project is more worthy than a pair of diamond earrings. Actually, I could use a pair of big diamond earrings.

To see the excitement in my child's face as they hand their homemade gift to me ... it is priceless.

And now I completely understand. Of course my artwork meant more to her than those diamond earrings. Just like my kids' artwork means more to me.

Silly me.

For Valentine's Day, Mason made me this vase of flowers at
school ...

And the kids drew me these pictures ...


And this one, to which Mason assigned the below captions ...

Mommy says, "I love you."
Daddy says, "I love you too."
Mason says, "Happy Valentine's Day, Momma."
Payton says, "Do do dow."
Addison says, "Mama."
Zoe {the dog} says, "Woof ... I'm hungry."

And Mason gave me two dollars to buy myself anything I wanted ... isn't he the sweetest?

Learning love from Baby Grace

As you may recall, I contributed to a book called Gifts: Mothers Reflect on How Children with Down Syndrome Enrich Their Lives. There was an article that was published after the recent Down syndrome convention in Boston. Essentially, a new parent of a child with Down syndrome said that she learned of her daughter's diagnosis prenatally. She was given a certain amount of time to process the information before she would decide how to proceed with her pregnancy (i.e. abort or give birth). During that time, she was given the Gifts book and it rocked her world in such a way that her little angel is now about six months old and thriving. How cool is that?! I'm so honored to be part of something so special.