Being a Stay-At-Home Mom

This particular "grateful" item encompasses so many others...  

Ever since I was young, I imagined I would be a stay-at-home mom.  Perhaps this is because it's what my mom did (until we were all in school, at which point she started working with the school system); and it was just what moms did, in my mind.  I know I used to plan to go to college.  To get a degree.  To become a teacher and maybe even teach for a couple of years.  But I always figured I would marry and have children and be home with them.

But life doesn't always happen the way you plan it when you're a little girl.  With age comes experience, knowledge, and hopefully wisdom.  And as I grew into adulthood, I didn't just want to be a stay-at-home mom because I just imagined that as my life.  I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom because I felt somewhere inside of me that it was what I really wanted.  What would be best for my children.  But for many years, it looked like it may not happen for me.  And I yearned for it.

Thankfully, after years of waiting, Heavenly Father helped me find my husband.  And one of our earliest discussions was about the importance of our children having their mom at home. I'm so grateful that my husband not only supports, but encourages, this desire of mine.  I'm so thankful it was as important to him as it was to me. 

And I'm so grateful we have the financial means to allow it to be.  Because I know that there are many women who would love to be home with their children, but can't for a variety of reasons. And I applaud those women, because there are days I can't imagine having to juggle a job with being a mom.  Those women possess a strength I don't know if I have.

What I've discovered in my almost five months of being a stay-at-home mom is that it is work.  I always knew it would be.  But, just like I didn't understand how intense motherhood would be before I got here, I also didn't fully understand the magnitude of work that comes with being a stay-at-home mom.  It is more than a full-time job.  It doesn't end at 5 p.m.  It doesn't have weekends off. 

But it is the best "job" I've ever had. 

Because when I look over at my baby girl playing with her toys after her morning feeding, and she looks at me and smiles...  When I am changing her diaper and I giver her tummy a raspberry and she giggles...  When I rock her before her naps and she snuggles me for a few minutes before I put her into her crib...  I melt.  And that's worth more than any paycheck I could ever receive. How grateful I am I get to experience it all.

What are you grateful for today?