Blog Post by Wendy Kauffman
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I hope that today you are being pampered and cared for beyond all of your expectations.
Since it is Mother's Day I thought I would take this opportunity to brag a little and tell some stories that make this Mother's Day a great day for me. Yesterday was an amazing picture of why I do what I do as a mother and a few of the reason why Motherhood brings me so much joy.
We spent yesterday morning in Coconut Grove registering Hannah and Rachael for classes at Academy of Arts and Minds, where they will start school in the fall. If you know our family, you know we have always home-schooled our kids, so this is a big deal, especially for me as a mother. Although home schooling is very difficult at times, I find great joy in having the opportunity to do it. I am so proud of Hannah and Rachael and how hard they have worked to get into this school and I know they will do amazing there and will be a light of God's love to so many there.
After registering for classes, we headed to the Thomas home to do our normal Saturday cleaning. Hannah and I were doing our normal tasks of laundry and cleaning while Ruth was swimming in their very nice pool. She goes to hang out with the boys while we clean. At the end of their time in the pool, Rick asked the kids if they wanted to split $5 and clean the leaves out of the pool. Ruth, being her Father's daughter, immediately negotiated $5 each to clean the pool. After about 10 minutes I told Ruth she needed to get out of the pool and get ready to go. They were not done with their job of cleaning leaves, so Rick decided to pay them their $5 and told them they would need to plan to finish their work next time. Ruth let him know right away that she would be willing to clean the pool every week, because she has a purpose for the money. She is saving up to buy things for the homeless. She stopped them in their tracks. They could not believe that this little girl did not have some big plans to buy some really cool thing for herself. She was saving up her money to buy socks and t-shirts for the homeless. She is so selfless and I am pretty sure I had nothing to do with that, but it was such a proud momma moment for me. Now, because she was not afraid to speak up about something that is very important and dear to her, she has an extra $35 that they gave her, so we will be off to the store this week to buy new t-shirts for next Saturday's breakfast.
When I returned home, it was time to make dinner, so as the kids went out to play with a friend, I got everything prepared. When I called them back in to eat, they wanted to know if their friend Tyler could eat dinner with us. Jacob explained to me later that their family is really struggling financially and they are on the verge of losing their home and sometimes there is not much to eat at their house. Now I don't know what is true about this story because we never know what kids will say to get a chili dog, but I was very proud that my kids were in tune enough to immediately invite their friend to dinner. I found out later in the night that Tyler eats at other people's houses quite a bit so there may be a lot of truth to what he is saying.
Needless to say, all of those moments yesterday made me realize how important my job as a Mother is and how no matter how hard it gets at times, perseverance brings great joy. So if you are a mom today, I know your job is hard and your work is never done, but there is great reward! Happy Mother's Day!
We are now less than 1 month from needing to be out ofthe house we have been living in. We have been very grateful for this place. Although we knew it was temporary, we did not know exactly how temporary. So we are on a big hunt for another house.
