Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you!! I hope that you have wonderful days. I have already been given a fantastic mother's day, and it's not even here. Yesterday I received a lovingly planted and slightly bent marigold from my kindergartener. She had planted it in school and was so excited to give it to me. My 4th grader was carefully hiding something when he got in the car, "don't look back here", "don't tell", were the words I heard on the way home. My little preschooler started to take out her school papers then quickly put them back in her backpack after school saying she needed to hide them. Those are the kind of presents that I love.

Two nights ago I had to go to a meeting. My husband stayed home and put the kids to bed. When I got home and walked in my room there was a note with a silk rose taken out of my little girls room. The note said "I lof Mom". Spelled exactly that way, so I know that she wrote it herself. This coming from a little girl who for the first year couldn't even say the words "I love you", then she progressed to saying them, but not really understanding the meaning behind them, until recently when she had learned to actually express love for someone. What an amazing thing that is. Life is so wonderful, that we can learn to love each other, that families can grow and never run out of love. The love of a child is more precious than anything. And something that I never realized how precious it was until I had a child that couldn't give that love. Now she gives real hugs and you can feel that there is love there. That is a gift beyond words.

Last night we had our awards ceremony. It was fun. We had around 100 kids and families show up. We had ice cream sundaes and then went into the theatre for awards. I really hate getting up there and giving out the awards because I'm not real good with words and it never comes out the way I want. But oh well, the kids don't really care. We give out the best actor awards that the college provides for us, then we do a lot of our own thing. Extra Mile awards, Golden Heart Awards, and an award that is dedicated to one of our students that was in a car accident last year. Plus recognition to all my assistants, and to the kids that are "graduating" out of my program because they are too old. Jason gave out all kinds of crazy awards for his cast, which they really enjoyed. Then the college had given me a plaque for my service to the program, and they asked Jason to present it to me. That was my mother's day gift, to be recognized by my son. Of course, he is much better at words than I will ever be, but I will always remember the way I felt when he said the things he said about me. That is what makes being a mother well worth it!! That is the prize, the love and appreciation of our children.