I am just a stay at home mom, and I love it!

Our little family at the wedding

This weekend we went to a wedding in Houston for Mike’s best friend. It was quite the adventure traveling 4 hours in a car with a 10.5 month old! But, she was a trooper and the wedding a beautiful! I came home from the trip still pondering some of the conversations I had with several well meaning party guests: “You don’t work?” “You are just a stay at home mom?” “Can’t you work like 3 days as a nurse?” While I welcome those questions, it was so shocking to me that it seemed like I was not the norm.

I loved being a nurse. I made a tangible difference in someone’s life every day I was at work…I helped them recover from open heart surgery, I took away their pain, I comforted their fears, I helped them get used to the new heart or lungs so lovingly gifted to them so they could start a new life, sometimes I helped hold them on this earth as they teetered between life and death, and sometimes I helped them pass into eternity gracefully. Who wouldn’t love that? Nursing was also my mission field. I had so many awesome spiritual conversations with patients, I prayed with them when they asked, I was at times the hands and feet of Christ.

I was very fickle in my decision to stay at home… those who know me well, know that I changed my mind every second! Eventually, I chose the more difficult of the two options for me. It was painful leaving my job, my significance, my calling since I was a child, a source of income that added some “security.” Don’t get me wrong, I think working moms are amazing, they hold two jobs, they are superheroes! But, if I am honest, sometimes I would love to escape to work. It would be easier to let someone else raise my child for 8 hours during the day! There are days when I would rather take bratty doctors, adult blowouts, and 12 hours on my feet than be at home. That’s just my fleshly honesty.

I LOVE staying at home with MK, but it has been a journey to get here. I had to start telling myself that what I did was important. I had to realize that being called to be a mom is just (maybe even more) as important as being a nurse or any other job I could have. Motherhood is my mission field and I am embracing it with all that I have! It was so empowering for me to come to that realization. I now see every day as a opportunity to love on MK and Mike, not of my own power, because in my core I am selfish and prideful, but with Christ’s power in me! Isaiah 40:10 “He tends his flock like a shepherd, he carries them in his arms and gathers them close to his heart. He gently leads those with young.”

If you are a stay at home mom, you’re not just a “stay at home mom,” you are a: cook, maid, chauffeur, party and event planner, secretary, nurse, teacher, youth pastor, personal shopper, trash man, accountant, sales man (trying to get kids to eat green veggies is a sales pitch!), and most importantly a wife and mom. You don’t get a pay check, a bonus, raise or PTO. But, you do get the satisfaction of feeding, clothing, cleaning up for and loving on your family every day and hopefully one day, leading your little ones to know the Lord. There is no greater accomplishment then that!

If you know any moms whether they go to work or stay at home, go give them a high five, a hug, an encouraging word, or a helping hand! They don’t get told enough what an important job they do for the next generation.