Our Nest

These are my people.  My tribe.  My troop.  My joy, my tears, my heart, my everything.  They make me who I am from the depth of my inner being to the expression I wear on my outer self.  Now, I say that outer part because kids can be just as tough as they are a blissful joy.  Ahhh the experience of being a mother of five!  Don't ask what its like or how it happened unless you have 24 hours without potty breaks.  But in a nutshell being a mom of five is the gift that keeps on giving.  It's exhausting yet fulfilling.  It's demanding yet liberating (when they are all asleep at the same time).  It's the gift God gave me and since I still hang on to that part of the bible that says He won't give you more than you can handle I'm hanging in there by the hangnail of my pinky finger. Each of my children are as similar as they are different.  I am just as amazed at them as they are with me when they see me stumble into the kitchen each morning looking like I just came out of a washer full of wet rags.  They love me (for the most part) and I love them.

Photo Courtesy: Sharlee Rother Photography (and generous, kind, fun, talented, big hearted friend)

So without further adieu allow me to introduce the Fabulous Five.  We will begin with Mason.  Do you have that 24 hours I mentioned earlier?  He's a survivor, a fighter, a charmer, but probably not our future farmer.  He's the family comedian and is as witty as they come. Adopted from Guatemala at just 5 months he immediately endured a stem cell transplant that would save his precious and fragile life (that's a 72 hour story) and I lived to tell about it.  I could go on but that's another post or maybe a novel in its own right.  Mason has a HUGE heart for animals (mostly the stuffed kind) and will give a stranger a hug and tell you he loves you at just the right moment.  He was my first baby and according to him, he will always be my baby.

Lauren.  She's amazing in a way words cannot describe so bare with me.  She's also a fighter, a survivor and carries that old soul aura with her.  Adopted from Guatemala at the age of 9 she seems to have already lived a life.  A life none of us can imagine.  She is quiet, gentle and sweet.  She is a deep thinker.  Lauren is brilliant inside and out.  This girl was fluent in the English language in just under 3 months.  Looking back I don't think she had a choice.  We threw her into the waves third grade and she swam.  She's a natural mother hen and I don't know where I would be as a mother without her.  She does without being asked or told.  And every time she does she blesses me immeasurably.  She has wings and a halo you can't see.  I'm sure of it.

Parker, P-dog, P-man.  Where do I begin? Parker can be caught changing the oil on our John Deere tractor or the transmission fluid on a four-wheeler.  He can take a car a part and put it back together.  When you ask him how he knows how to do such tasks he instinctively replies, "I don't know, I just do."  He can mow a pasture like no other this side of the Mississippi.  Adopted from Guatemala at the age of 2 1/2 he came home with is baby brother ready to engineer and master anything he put his mind to.  Parker, my friends, is our future farmer. He's eager to help with the chores rain or shine.  He's as strong as an ox but has the heart of a little puppy.  There is nothing sweeter than to hear him say, "mom, is there anything I can do to help?"

Henry.  Hen. Henner. Benner.  Benny.  Bear.  And you know what?  He responds to all of them.  He's the kid with an infectious smile.  His big brown eyes (and adorable uni-brow) will knock your socks off.  He hasn't met a stranger.  He has that real zeal for life.  Henry is his name and sports is his game.  But more than that he is the king, the master, the champion of snuggles.  He's his daddy's shadow,  his mommas cub.  Born 5 weeks premature he has life wrapped around his finger.  He can tell a story as if it's happening right before your very eyes.  He's the one that will rally the troops, being his siblings or friends, and make fun happen.  Henry loves all things boy and will play catch from sun up to sun down.  When he's thirty, married and has kids of his own I hope he still pats my back when I hug him. 

Susie Grace.  She was formed and born a firecracker.  This little bombshell had me pulling over on the side of the road to re-arrange her inner-womb position so I could drive.  Since taking up most of the real estate in Twin Tummyville, not a lot has changed.  She's been "wearing the pants" around here from day one.  She came out a whole pound bigger than her twin brother and made sure we all (doctors and nurses included) knew who was boss.  But don't be fooled.  Susie Grace has the sweetest imagination I've ever seen.  She loves horses and stuffed animals.  They are scattered throughout our house like glitter.  She has a "she-she" (blanky) she won't be without and I have the pictures to prove it.  She loves tight hugs, syrup in her hair and showing her friends the way of farm life.  Her snuggles are endless and for that I am thankful.  She reminds me that life is short.  Snuggle first.