Happy Birthday and What Our Kids Teach Us About Really Living

Today we celebrate our sweet girl — now a young woman — so hard to believe it’s been 20 years since the first moment I saw her beautiful, little face smiling back at me.

She taught me so much about being a mom. Honestly, sometimes I feel like I need to apologize for knowing so little about what it really meant to be a mother when she first came along. Her siblings have her to thank for teaching us the most important lessons in life — and what it means to really love somebody.

As an aside, CHECK OUT ALL THE GEAR in this photo. It was the closing Mass for World Youth Day, 2002. I have no explanation for why we needed all this gear for an afternoon out — and those shoes, with the over-the-top treads😳  — you would have thought I was going on an expedition to the North Pole with all that gear, Irish flag and all😂.

Yes, that is our baby pop-up tent, food and water for a week, blankets, baby backpack, ginormous stroller — and we didn’t really need any of it. But have to admit, we began parenthood always overthinking the gear and the things we needed to function as a family.

Since then, we have learned to let go of overplanning everything — and learn to embrace the unexpected. Honestly, it is a much better way to approach the challenges of parenting.

I remember jumping on the bus early that morning and landing next to a family with 5 kids on their way to World Youth Day. I overheard the husband saying to his wife, “Did we bring diapers?”  I remember being shocked. I couldn’t believe how relaxed they were about everything and I was a complete stress case with just one baby!

The good news is I had like 20 diapers for the day, so we gave them a few of ours.  So, you see, God provided😉.

And now, we are just like that same family we met on that bus. We are much more relaxed and we learned that the name of the game with a bunch of kids is A GOOD SENSE OF HUMOR a SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE and FAITH IN GOD.

Those 3 things will get you through just about anything and it will teach you to stop stressing over all the things that you really can’t control anyways. Might as well try to enjoy the chaos, because life is messy. No matter how we try to control the things around us, life often can’t be controlled!

One thing my six kids has taught me is the importance of learning to be flexible and to allow room for the Holy Spirit to inspire you with a plan B — or maybe even a plan C. Honestly, it is a much better way to enjoy the beauty of family life and the beauty of life in general.

My greatest adventures have been with my family when things didn’t go as planned — and that attitude of letting go of my control freak tendencies and embracing the adventure of it all, began with this sweet little baby who changed our life for ever.

I guess what I’m trying to say is having kids is an incredible gift and they give us way more than we could ever give to them. Sometimes we forget the blessings in the midst of the choas — but I guess I just want to encourage anybody reading this to be open to the beauty of family and babies and the chaos that comes with it.

Your life will never be the same — it will be better! So much better than when you could control everything around you.

So, Happy Birthday, daughter of mine — you changed our life for the better. Forever grateful for you and the ways you have led your siblings in embracing their faith, too.

Life just wouldn’t be the same without you in it!