Happy Mother's Day

Mom, 

You inspire us. Teach us. Love us. Defend us. Remind us. Encourage us. Show us. Enhance us. Believe in us. Challenge us. Support us. Give us. Humor us. Tolerate us. Understand us. Complete us. And most of all, mean the world to us.  Thank you for being an example we all seek to follow. Someday, if I am half the mother you are, I will be content and my children will be lucky. Love you.

My heart is full and it is a heavy full.  But it is not a sad heavy.  It is an overflowing full - steadily pulsating with admiration, appreciation, wonder, and thankfulness.  It has been a weekend of celebration and when we celebrate, I reflect. And when I reflect, I feel.  It is in these moments that I often become overwhelmed and heavy. This weekend we have celebrated new life, new roles, enriched relationships, memories, sacrifice and faith. We celebrate the joy that Haddie has brought our family.  We celebrate Ty in her new journey of motherhood. We acknowledge the continuous ways our mothers and grandmothers enrich our lives each day. We remember our mothers and grandmothers whom we've lost and the grieving mothers who have lost. We honor the sacrifice Jesus made in the excitement of our goddaughter's first communion. We celebrate family life.

There are many reasons to celebrate and we relished in all of them.

Haddie bear and I took a break from all the excitement.

And then it was on to Stephie's first communion...

Of course a Rohde family gathering would not be complete without a few games. Since it was Stephanie's day, she got to decide all of the dance-off match-ups.

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As the sun sets, the day comes to a close but the celebration continues.  With each new dawn, I continue to relish in thankfulness for the amazing mothers I have in my life - my mother, sister, mother-in-law, grandmothers, aunts, friends - I continue to learn from the examples you live and I appreciate and honor your journey each and every day.

Signs of Spring...