Sometimes I really really like my kids.

I just thought I would take a moment to highlight why I love my "littles" so much.  I am sarcastic.  I just am.  And I am afraid that too often, I roll my eyes in that sarcastic way and make fun of how troublesome these little people can be sometimes.  But the truth is that even on the worst of the worst days, I am grateful to be a mother.  I am in awe that I have been given charge of them.  They amaze me.  They  humble me.  They make me feel such depth of emotion that I cannot comprehend it.  They are sweet.  They are unique.  They are beautiful.
I love Haley.  Last week Haley handed me a crumbled wad of small bills and asked me to order a typing program for her.  As in, she wants to learn how to type on the computer.  She sits and does her lessons and feels accomplished and grown up.  She likes to do "reports" on the computer where she simply looks stuff up and writes about it.  Usually it includes pictures too.  This girl can do anything.  She perplexes me the most but I think it is because she is "so much".  So much of everything.  She keeps me on my toes and her potential is immeasurable.  She is good at everything she tries.  She is compassionate and intuitive.  She is beautiful.
I love Abigail.  Abby's teacher has been out since October, taking care of her sick  mother.  Without us talking much about it, Abby has been praying for Mrs. B's mother for months.  She came home from school the other day and said that she had heard that the mother passed away.  Abby was contemplative and sad and then spent the next while brainstorming about things she could do for her teacher.   Abby is quietly good.  She wants to please people not for show, but because she really cares.  Abby is good and she is loving.  She is so funny.  And those dimples, I couldn't live without them.  Abby will accomplish things she never knew she could do.
Mia is fiercely "everything".  She does everything with vim and vigor.  She loves people.  She loves to be with you.  Mia is a worrier.  She will lay in bed at night when I am tucking her in and ask question after question about how safe our house is, and how far up a burglar using suction cups on his hands and feet can climb.  When she says her prayers, she prays for the whole world.  She prays that people will be happy and that no one will steal other people's stuff.  She prays that people in other countries will be healthy and that they will have somewhere to live.  Mia is sweet and she is smart.  Mia will influence people.
And Hazel, sweet Hazel.  I don't know how many times a day I grab her little face in my hands and ask her why she is so cute or silly.  She usually has a whitty reply that makes me laugh.  She is mellow.  She is like each one of her sisters, and nothing like her sisters.  She is content and easy going but also intensely determined.  She is calming.  People will feel at peace just being around her.

As I was driving the girls somewhere in the car the other day I had one of those blissfully happy moments of contentment.  Those seemingly rare views we get sometimes of perfect harmony and joy-those moments when the day to day grit doesn't cloud our view or preoccupy our thoughts.   I was so grateful for the exact thing that I was given.  And then I thought about my husband and how much I love that he has been blessed with these four daughters.  I thought about how perfectly appointed our dynamic was...he wasn't meant to be the father of any other family...not that he couldn't be the father of any group of genders possible, but he was placed with this exact dynamic for a reason, I know it.  And I thought about how much the girls need him, him, as their father.  And how much they need me, and how much we need them.  Each of us, purposeful, specific, intended.  I don't know how "families" were created or why they are appointed the way they are.  But I know there is a reason.  I know there is a plan and I know there is a  purpose to every detail in that arrangement.
I am grateful.

I love my family.