Every year, my MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group has a meeting called Tea and Testimony. It’s a meeting where we have a catered brunch from the most amazing restaurant in San Antonio, Magnolia Pancake Haus. The bacon pancakes are the best! Anyway, after we eat way too many carbs, moms have the opportunity to get up in front of everyone and give their testimony, or just talk for a few minutes. Two years ago, our theme was Be You, Bravely. I spoke about a few things, including learning sign language, my mom, and my adventures in South Korea, and how I might have to walk back home—from South Korea. Rrrrriiiiiiiiight……
Whatevs….so, Tea and Testimony came back around this year, and I thought I’d give it a go again. Get up in front of people. And talk. Yeah, I’m so good at talking in front of people! I’m so amazing! Tremendous! So, luckily, (but oh so sad!) the babies got sick and I couldn’t go to the meeting. I was so sad because I wanted to fill up on carbs that morning. Anyway, one of my friends said she would read my speech for me since I couldn’t go.
Below is a version of what I wrote and she read. It’s not really a testimony, just something I wanted to say to everyone.
Moms, we have a hard job! First of all, we carry these precious little, tiny humans in our bellies for a while. That’s hard, because…heartburn, puking, constipation, and other gross things. And then after that joy is over, we have these teeny, tiny, fragile, little things that we have to keep alive. Thank goodness they’re not plants! Can I get an amen?
Infancy is hard because you don’t know why they’re screaming. Are they hungry? Do they have reflux? When’s the last time they pooped? Why did they poop 12 times today? When will they stop eating every 2 hours? (Mine still do this and they just turned one!) When they can finally hold up their heads, sit up, crawl, walk, you feel a little bit of relief. There’s always a little relief after every milestone, I think, but that relief is…brief…as we look to the next big thing these kids have to do.
My twins just turned one year old, and let me tell you, I sang Hallelujah, Praise be to God in the Heavens, thank you sweet Baby Jesus in Heaven! I remember, when the babies were just a few weeks old, telling another MOPS mom that I just wanted them to be a year old already! Then we had to go through harnesses because they both had hip dysplasia. Harnesses, and sponge baths, for eight looooong weeks. After they got done with the harnesses, helmets! Helmets for 3 months! (They have beautiful heads now!)
After we got done with helmets, and had no more weird attachments on the babies, the next 5 months went by soooo fast! And I found myself wishing they were still little babies! Mostly because they can crawl and they get into everything now… Let me tell you…babies think the dog’s water is, like, the most amazing thing ever!!
Anyway, the point of this is not how ridiculously incredible my kids are…and they’re pretty incredible!…but the point is, I never would have survived this first year with twins if it weren’t for my mom friends. Ladies, we need each other! We need the hugs, no matter how much we hate hugging! We need prayers. We need food!
When the twins were born last year, so many people stepped up and brought us meals! I can’t even tell you how helpful that was! And when I was in the hospital for a week for that crazy infection after the babies got discharged, several people came to visit me, brought snacks, games, and fun things for E4. That poor kid had a really rough few weeks as a new big sister.
But I needed those visits from friends. And now, even though they’re getting bigger, I still need visits from friends. I need people to come to my house; I need to go to other mom’s houses. We need friends that we can turn to when we need to vent, or brag, and even when we have no idea what’s going on with our kids.
We need to get over our fear of being around other people; get over our feelings of inferiority; get over our hurt feelings of being left out. We need to stop comparing ourselves to other moms. And we need to make friends. MOPS is a good place for that. And I know we can still feel lonely even in a group like this, but I think if we try, if we really try—and sometimes it’s HARD! It’s hard to try to make friends—we can have a few close friends we can turn to when we need help. And it goes both ways! When our friends experience tragedies—life changing tragedies—we are there for them. We take them meals; we go sit with them; we pray for them; we love them. Let’s be friends. Let’s pray for each other, and love each other, and laugh with each other, and for the love of all that is good and holy, let’s eat together!