Moms are usually the ones who get cards and letters on Mother's Day. But with her husband away on an adoption business trip in China, MomSpeaker Kelly Raudenbush turned the tables on her brood last year, penning this missive to remind them what the holiday means to her. There's no better time to share it than the Friday before Mother's Day 2015. However you mark the occasion, have a wonderful weekend with your family!
Hello four children,
In 90 minutes, it’s officially Mother’s Day. You probably don’t remember years of Mother’s Day pasts, so I’ll fill you in. It’s sorta a day to celebrate me. I’ll act all humble and casual and undeserving. But Daddy will tell you that come the Friday before Mother’s Day, I typically declare it the start of Mother’s Day weekend. I haven’t expected much from you in honor of the weekend over the last 12 years. Truth be told, Daddy was always the one to rally you all to give me some special treatment like breakfast in bed and maybe a nice long nap. But Daddy is on the other side of the globe giving others special treatment which, mind you, is way more important than serving me a muffin and coffee on Mother’s Day. I believe he’s passed the baton off to you . . . or maybe left a card on his desk and told you to give it to me on Sunday. Either way, Mother’s Day is your responsibility now. Allow me to give you a little direction because I know you want some.
You don’t know how to use the coffee pot nor how I overthink the balance between decaf and caffeinated coffee beans based on how I feel at that particular moment. So I’ll get up and do my overthinking and brew some and then come right on back upstairs. Laying in bed with my hot cup of coffee in a China Starbucks mug is a gift enough; who cares who makes the coffee?
Don’t worry about cooking or picking flowers or wrapping expensive gifts (unless Daddy already did that with you before he left, in which case, I will gladly accept them). The best gift you can give me is something I like to call peace. I’m fairly certain you don’t fully understand that word. So here it goes — no fighting. play nicely together. do whatever it is that you do in Minecraft together and tell each other you like your blocks or whatever it is you make there. I am not asking you to be quiet or to not make a mess. Go ahead, talk, make noise, play two different songs on two different devices, dump the dress-up bin again like you did today. But when you do it, be peaceful with each other so that this mama can sit back with her partially caffeinated coffee and the Bible where I normally read the same verse 10 times before actually making it through to the end and I can close my eyes, hear the pleasant sound of giggles, the tidal wave of Legos being dumped out and stirred up, and sheep baa-ing and creepers making whatever noise it is that they make, and say to myself, “Ahhh…this is the life.”
Feel free to call me by name (though once is enough, I promise. There’s no need to say it 10 times) and tell me you love me and tell me something specific you love about me. That will encourage me and help me to feel peaceful in the event that you four are not peaceful.
Oh, and please don’t complain that there is a Father’s Day and a Mother’s Day but no children’s day. There’s really no peace in that.
That is all. Goodnight.
Kelly Raudenbush is a mother to four children and cofounder of The Sparrow Fund, a nonprofit committed to encouraging and equipping adoptive families. Learn more about her family's adoption story, how she's been changed by it and what life for as a parent to four children with all sorts of unique needs and gifts at My Overthinking.
