We’ve recently added number 5. Elijah Nicholas joined us in May. Four boys! Picking a name this time was hard…never planned on picking FOUR boy names, but here we are.

Lately, I’ve had a few people say to me, “I don’t know how you do it,” which makes me glance over my shoulder and check to see who they’re talking to…because inside I still sort of see myself as a new mom with wobbly Bambi legs. I remember once looking at women with lots of kids and wondering the same thing. How do they do it?

But now I know. They just do it one day at a time. They just grow little by little and in His kindness, that’s the only way God asks us to grow.

On a walk recently, I was looking at the trees and thinking about how they grow in three ways. They grow down, digging their roots deeper and deeper. They grow up, reaching towards the sun. And they grow outward, ring by ring, year by year, gradually becoming bigger and stronger so they can support a greater load and offer more to those around them.

Growth in motherhood is a lot like that. One kid is hard. Two kids is hard. And so on. But then one day, we look up and realize that like a tree, we’ve gained a few rings of growth. Our roots are a little deeper. Our branches are a little stronger. And we’re managing more than we once imagined we could.

And here’s the things about trees. They’re amazingly resilient. Storms or droughts come and wipe out all kinds of stuff, but the trees? They’re often still there, not because they’re so strong or sufficient in and of themselves, but because they’ve rooted themselves in the right places. They’ve fed themselves with the right things

So, here’s to all the moms, new, veteran, young and old, who are growing little by little, one day at a time. Every day we’re getting stronger and every day, if we’ve rooted ourselves in Him (Jeremiah 17:7-8), God will give us what we need to bear our load and weather what storms may come.

I put the pretty picture first, but let’s be honest…this is more accurate of life since adding number 5 😂

P.S. I’ve got some exciting news coming soon…a dream I’ve been working on for years. Stay tuned! I’m glad you’re here.