It was never a sacrifice

Sitting on the couch, watching my very pregnant belly twist and roll was our nightly entertainment. I usually had a bowl of ice cream in hand. We were in the 3rd trimester with our first baby and conversations focused on if she would have dark hair like daddy or be bald like me as a newborn? We also had serious conversations about sacrifices we would make, living on one income, so I could be a stay-at-home mom. For this little bundle and for her future siblings.
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We would sacrifice dining out if they didn’t have a value menu, trips to the mall for new spring clothes, matching dressers for our master bedroom, and the latest upgrades for our cell phones. All material and temporary.
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Fast forward to our first baby beginning her senior year of high school this month and I wish I could tell those soon-to-be-new-parents that none of it would really be a sacrifice. In fact, quite the opposite.
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It would have been a sacrifice to miss morning pajama cuddles while drinking strawberry milk and watching “Dora The Explorer.”
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I would have missed important mid-morning conversations like, “Mommy, would it have been stinky for Jonah inside that whale?” and “Do you think Noah liked the polar bears or panda bears best on the ark?”
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I would have missed small hands helping me prepare lunch and grocery shopping helpers who asked to buy everything at their eye-level, learning math facts as we sorted oranges into plastic bags.
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The simple, hidden days full of wonder, discovery, sloppy kisses, bear hugs, honest prayers, learning, teaching, comforting, laughing, celebrating a thousand tiny milestones, watching our children run to the door and into our Hero’s arms when he returned home from work (travel and deployments), and time growing together were never a sacrifice. They have been the moments the Lord has used to draw me closer to Him, to teach me to pray, to pull out the sinful weeds that spring up in my thoughts, to inspire childlike faith in my grown-up heart, to help me understand His love, to humble, refine, and to bring me more joy than I’d ever imagined. Not a sacrifice. An honor.