Mother's Day 2018

As you can imagine, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day can be...different at our house.  I don’t think I will go into the details of why these days are a little tricky, but I want to share some of my thoughts this Mother’s Day.

When you blend a family there are lots of things that need to be ironed out, one thing that I have learned is that celebrating birthdays, anniversary’s and other special days (including Mother’s Day) is not one of my strengths.  Here is an example of last years Mother’s Day.  

For the record, this is probably not word for word, but how I remember the conversation going.

     KATIE: Did you send your sister a message for Mother’s Day?

     JOSH: What? Why would I do that? She is my sister, not my mom.

    KATIE (incredulous) : Are you serious?  She is a mother, you are her brother, send her a message and tell her happy Mother’s Day.  It’s just what you do.

     JOSH (confused): ok, but it is going to be weird, I usually miss her birthday by a few days.

Text message from Josh to Daija - “Happy Mother’s Day”

Reply from Daija to Josh - “Tell Katie Thanks!”

I learned a couple things form this experience.

1. my sister knows me pretty well
2. it doesn’t matter if it is weird, it is still nice to send a message.

I also learned that I have a long way to go to show and tell Katie how much she is loved on Mother’s Day, but I also have a lot to teach 6 boys to do the same.

Here we go.  I am sure I will miss some people, forget to say something, use the wrong words, etc.  Sorry about that.

Happy Mothers Day Daija.  Hope you have a great day and your family shows you all the love you deserve.  (Don’t expect a message, this is probably all you will get)

Happy Mother’s Day Mom. I am sure I have missed the boat on this one, not sure I can ever make up for the years I failed to appropriately celebrate your special day, but thanks for all you do (and have done) for our family.  The rest of you out there will probably never understand the time and effort my mom has put in for our family, just know she deserves more praise than I will probably be able to dish out.

Happy Mother’s Day Alisa.  You deserve a medal for 15 years of living with me.  I am certain I missed numerous holiday celebrations.

Happy Mother’s Day Katie.  Despite a long intro to this Mother’s Day post, this is for you.

Everyone that is reading this:  Imagine you are always happy, your goal in life is to make everyone around you happy.  Imagine you have 6 teenage boys that you want to connect with, love, teach, and care for.  You want to talk to them, get to know them, show them you care.  That is Katie.  

Of course in an effort to accomplish her goals, she starts by talking to them, and gets this.

   KATIE (big smile, super happy): How was school? How did you sleep? Tell me about practice?

   ANY BOY IN OUR FAMILY (most of the time): fine...it was good...grunt...

You can imagine how hard this is.

Katie deals with 6 teenage boys every day, moody, loud, forgetful, “talkative” boys.  Then she deals with me.  

I think what I am getting it that Katie is a saint.  She loves all of us, she tells us, she shows us, even when we fail to do the same.

I was at Alisa’s Grandma’s 90th birthday party this past weekend (BTW, Happy Mothers Day Grandma Washburn), and I had the opportunity to talk to one of Alisa’s uncles and the first thing he said (after giving me a big hug) was how happy he was that we had found Katie.  That he had heard that we were happy and doing well.  He is absolutely right.  I am grateful that news reached him.

Despite our ability to show you we love you, Katie, I am here to tell you we do.  We are not only lucky to have you in our life, but blessed as well.  Your non-stop efforts to tell us you love us is amazing.  Someday I hope to prove my love for you as well.  It may take years, but someday I will succeed.  I hope I can do enough to set a good example for our kids (future wives, I apologize for any lack of ability in this area.  Someone might wonder why I don't apologize to a future husband, well because Brittea already knows how to do all this, she takes after her mother.)

Thank you Katie.  You bring happiness and joy to our live.  Thank you for dealing with ornery boys, moody teenagers, messy bedrooms, and all the other "pleasantries" of living with us.  You could not handle it with more patience or grace.  We love you, I love you.

Happy Mother's Day!

Disclaimer:  I don’t like social media’s ability to make everyone feel like they are not doing good enough because all you see is everyone’s perfectly prepared pictures and comments.  If after reading this you feel like you are not as good as us, please call me, I would be happy to share our challenges, but I thought it best not to share all of that with the entire world...