As soon as I became a mom, I quickly began to create a list of BIG AMAZING ADVENTURES I wanted to take my children on.
You know, swimming with dolphins, hiking through the jungle, jumping off waterfalls, kind of BIG adventures.
I dreamed of flying across the world to climb the Great Wall of China, or wandering rows of tulips in Holland. I dreamed of kayaking down rivers through beautiful mountain ranges or wandering through famous museums and eating delicious exotic treats.
We were going to be the adventurous family.
I just knew it.
And then, as soon as my oldest daughter could walk, EVERYTHING changed.
The spring she turned 1, I pushed her in the stroller to the park everyday.
She’d eat snacks in the stroller, she’d laugh in the swing, and she’d jabber and make baby signs at me.
It was ALL PERFECT.
She’s so smart. I thought to myself.
She’s so perfect. She does everything exactly as I hoped she’d do.
So I thought.
Turns out, I’d never raised kids before!!
Turns out, I was in for a massive wake up call.
Or rather, as I see it now, turns out I was in for an AWESOME AWAKENING.
Motherhood truly was everything I imagined, until the day my oldest daughter threw a massive fit in Walmart.
There I was in the check out line, when she threw herself down on the floor and started screaming.
I stared at my perfect first born in utter disbelief!
What had I done WRONG as a mom that day??
Why was my perfect little toddler lying on the floor screaming like a banshee?
I had no idea. Even with her ridiculous vocabulary of baby signs.
(For the record she knew over 50, my other kids?? Yeah they learn a few or none!! So don’t think I’m this insanely brilliant mother or anything. Ha!)
Here she was in total meltdown and I was SO confused.
Hadn’t I bought her the pink rubber duck!?
Hadn’t I packed snacks and toys for distraction?
Hadn’t I tried to make grocery shopping fun?
Yes. I’d checked all my “good mom boxes.”
It didn’t matter. SHE wanted to do her own thing.
She wanted to CHOOSE her OWN adventure!
Walmart was NOT IT!
From that day forward, she WAS DETERMINED TO CHOOSE HER OWN ADVENTURE.
From that day forward, she always wanted to walk on our daily trip to the park.
I don’t think she EVER let me push her to the park in the stroller again.
Every day we’d head out the door.
Every day she’d refuse the stroller.
So I’d just walk with it behind her.
Without fail, after a little while, she’d lay down on the sidewalk and stare into the cracks.
Whaaaaat??
Why was my kid laying on the sidewalk ??
I’d try to coax her up:
“Don’t you want to go to the park with the swings and the ducks ??”
Nope. She did not.
The ants in the crack of the sidewalk were her “adventure of choice.”
When she was done watching them, she’d get up and walk a little further and then shed find ANOTHER ADVENTURE to halt our progress to the park.
EVERY DAY It would take us an HOUR, I kid you not, to go 2 1/2 blocks to the park.
Day after day after day.
It was exhausting.
“Come on!! I’d plead. “Let’s just GO to the PARK”
( like mommy planned so perfectly)
Nope. She was going to choose to pick the neighbors newly sprouted daffodils.
Nope. She was going to pick up all the rocks in the gutter.
Nope. She was going to do whatever her IMAGINATION and natural CURIOSITY wanted to do that day.
It drove my control freak, perfectly scheduled, mom brain insane!
But slowly, I learned.
I learned!!
I learned to let my CHILD LEAD ME!!
I learned to watch in AWE and listen in UTTER AMAZEMENT to how she saw the world.
Over time, and adding 5 more children, I’ve learned that the list of fancy, far away, expensive, adventures I once dreamed of PALE in comparison to watching my kids discover the world and how they fit into it.
I’ve learned that watching my toddler paint his entire body with water colors while his siblings laugh hysterically. It’s better than seeing the Mona Lisa.
I’ve learned that planting tulips together in our own yard and watching with excitement when they pop up in the spring EVERY YEAR is better than ALL the rows of tulips in Holland.
I’ve realized that watching my kids squirting each other with the garden hose, and having water balloon fights in the summer is better than swimming with a school of dolphins.
I’ve learned that watching them climb trees and explore the forest in our own backyard is better than climbing every bit of the Great Wall in China.
And I’ve learned that driving through Starbucks with my first born daughter for her favorite tomato and mozzarella sandwich while she tells me all her opinions about life, is FAR better than wandering every museum and all the exotic food I could ever eat.
Childhood
Motherhood
Family.
The small moments are my most cherished adventures.
Living the “everyday” and the “ordinary” through my children’s eyes has become the GREATEST ADVENTURE I could ever have dreamed of.
Maybe someday I will go to Paris.
Maybe I will go and see the Mona Lisa and eat a Sandwich on real French bread.
And in that moment, I’m sure I will see in my mind my beautiful, smart, witty teenage daughter’s smile eating her favorite Starbucks sandwich.
I’m sure when I’m standing in that “famous place” doing “BIG adventurous things” Iwill MISS that moment with my daughter and cherish it above ALL the adventures I could ever go on.
She showed me the way as a toddler.
She opened my eyes and my heart.
She taught me the TRUTH about what matters most.
I will be forever grateful to God for my children.
I am indebted to my children for all they TEACH ME.
For motherhood.
For childhood.
For Family.
They are MY Greatest Adventure of them ALL.
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