Love my little ones

For the past few years, I have followed the story of a little girl with cancer. I first became aware of this family from Santa Barbara through a mutual friend. Her dad is a pastor, and the mom has blogged beautifully about their little girl's fight with cancer. She has had three years of back and forth with cancer and remission, but with each new diagnosis, they have maintained such profound faith and peace. It has been inspiring to watch them deal with challenges I cannot even imagine. It has been a constant point of perspective for me, especially since becoming a mother.

Daisy, their eight year old daughter, passed away a few days ago. Her fight was long and painful, and the family has found great peace in knowing she is now living painlessly in heaven. Here is an excerpt from something her mom wrote the day after she passed:

My final request to all who read this blog: love. Love your babies, your husbands, mothers, sisters. Love each day like it’s your last. All you mamas out there, you have been entrusted with the precious gift of a human life who depends on you. Enjoy your gift. Breathe in the scent of your child’s hair, breath. Let them cook with you and make a mess of the kitchen. Play hide and seek with them, build sand castles with them, take them on picnics, read to them!  Listen to them, value and respect them, never shame them.  Your words they will carry with them their whole life and you have the power to give them wings or stunt their growth. Motherhood can be tough but it’s worth it. It can be exhausting, boring, tedious, but never for long. You blink and they’re grown. It has been my honor and privilege to love Daisy these last 8 years. I’m thankful for every minute; the joyful and the terrible alike.

I pray that we can all do just that. I have made a more conscious effort in the last few days to nag less with Parker and to just sit with him and mess up his blond hair. I love to nuzzle Austin and feels his cheeks tighten into a smile. These are the moments that matter most, and most of my daily complaints will carry no eternal weight. But the time I spend with my boys, the things that I say to them, and the way I make them feel... those things will transfer with them to eternity.

 These boys are my life, my joy. They make me smile, day after day.