The Magic Spell of Love

Mom.
Mother.
Mommy.
Mama.

Those words mean love.
Love in its strongest, most tenacious, unyielding, purest form.

The first moment you look at your child, Heaven reaches down and casts a magic spell over your soul.
You fall so intensely deep in love, that you have a super natural ability to withstand nights of
no sleep, messy diapers, spit-up, a diaper bag that could double as a mid-size piece of luggage and a waist line that is never quite the same.

That love stays with you as you learn how to deal with tantrums at the store, potty accidents, snotty noses and vomit at 2:00 am.  It swells and grows as you read bedtime stories, watch them run, play, laugh and learn to pray.  

Motherly love overrules that urge to make them change clothes because the ones they picked out don't match and celebrate accomplishments like putting their own shoes on, even if they end up on the wrong feet.

It's the kind of love that leads you to sob when they go off to kindergarten and then 3rd grade and then jr. high.

It brings tears to your eyes when they hand you a homemade card or Christmas ornament or ask you to snuggle at the end of a long day or lie on the green grass and look at the stars together.

It causes your heart to ache and weep when they strike out in a big moment or get left out by their friends.  You wish you could take away the pain of not making a team or ease the sadness of being rejected by a first crush.

Sometimes they do things that disappoint you.
Sometimes you do or say things that you regret but that certain strain of love, wraps itself so tightly around your heart,  you are moved to humbly apologize and ask for  forgiveness.

You find yourself with the uncanny ability to give them the benefit of the doubt.  Every. Single. Time.  You see the best in them, ALWAYS.

You have your Mother Bear Moments and understand when other Mother Bears have theirs.

You see the goodness of their hearts like no one else, even their dad. And while you treasure the memories of childhood, you can't wait to see what's around the next corner.

And the best thing about this unique, extraordinary, unparalleled kind of love?
It never ends.

It evolves and grows and expands.

And someday, you hope to have a front row seat when someone places a little piece of heaven in your child's arms and the magic spell of love begins again.