L is for Love

By Sarah Hart

I remember the first time I held Addie, my oldest, in my arms: three months of illness, three months of overeating, and three months of complete lack of balance was lost to that single moment. It was an amazing thing! I remember that feeling of "I know we've just met, but I love you so much that I would absolutely die for you." It is the strangest feeling in the world, and surely one of the most beautiful. For that few seconds, all is so right with the universe.

And then, in the way that marriage is not about the wedding day but every day after, you find out the same about parenthood. That first day is so much sheer joy; you have a wonderful gift in your new family member; you get to sleep while the nurses guard your little one; your food is brought to you on a tray in large quantities; people bring flowers and rejoice with you. And then, they let you take the baby home (What are they THINKING? Hey, does this thing come with a manual?).

The baby cries (you give her a binky). The baby screams (you sing a lullaby). The baby poops (you know what to do...sort-of, though you get it backwards). The baby wants to eat every hour all through the night (so you wake, and you wake your husband, too, though he can be of no real help except to lie curled up in a ball asleep at the foot of the rocking chair). The baby wants to wake up &mdash and stay up — at 4:00am (so you do, too). Then the baby cries (again). Then you cry. You're not so sure at times that you will make it.

And, comes the realization one groggy 2:30 in the morning . . . this is love! In the fullest, most complete, most overwhelming sense! This is love the way God meant love to look. For all it's patience, kindness, gentleness, unselfishness, rejoicing, and above all in it's total willingness to lay down it's life (and sleep habits) for the other. And the older my kids become, amazingly, the stronger that love becomes. As I type this I am sitting in an airport, itching to fly home and be with my little ones (whom I have not seen in 2 days and 18 hours). My heart is just bursting to be with them!

Next time, moms, that you doubt yourselves and your abilities, stand in front of a mirror with your child (no matter what age; teenagers may have to be forced or snuck-in upon). Consider how, with God's help, you have nurtured this life. Lock that picture into your brain. And think to yourself "Here . . . look at this . . . yep, this is love."

Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone — we find it with another."
- Thomas Merton, Love and Living

Let the light of love we bear
be like the finery we wear.
Let us show the world that we believe in love.
- From To Believe In Love by Janet Sullivan Whitaker