This summer marks 4 years of marriage with my husband.
We've got 2 lovely boys and we've lived in 3 different homes. Prior to making the choice to stay home, I was a veterinary technician. I loved it, most days.
My special interest was anesthesia and I loved learning and teaching future veterinarians the intricate balance between life and death, how to keep a critical patient alive during life saving surgery and the rewarding feeling of bringing a pet back to their family, healed and ready for more love. That being said, I looked forward to my last day of lifting 40kg dogs and wrestling with an angry beast while trying to get an IV catheter in. I certainly wouldn't miss the daily clean ups of various bodily fluids, the angry owner feeling entitled to free vet care or the loss of life that happened all too often. Being pregnant and 2 weeks from my due date, I was DONE! Just over a week from my last day at work, our firstborn arrived. He was hairy. Hairy shoulders, hairy back and a head full of hair most women coveted.
Just over a year and a half later, another little boy would be born to us.
So started my new job, my new role and the job that would stretch me and grow me like none had before. There certainly were similarities; bodily fluids, lifting squirming things and the inevitable exhaustion, but the best change was the new love for a little human that nine months ago, didn't exist. That love is something that keeps me in the job still today but more so, it is the responsibility I have to raise these little humans into responsible, self controlled, gracious and loving men. The job isn't easy but who else will do it? Who will love my children like I do? Who will give up themselves for them like I will? Who will invest in their good like I will? I can't think of a name. Not only am I the only mom these boys will ever have, but I'm their greatest advocate, the voice they don't yet have, their teacher, their leader, their mentor, their friend. Who will create an environment like I have for them where they can feel safe to explore, learn, be themselves and make mistakes? I can't think of anyone. See the reality is that for this life, these are MY boys, entrusted to ME by their perfect Creator. They don't have another person to call mom and so I do this homemaking job because I'm the only one who can do it and that gives me great thankfulness and joy