Never judge a book by it's cover

A couple weeks back, at church, I am dragging myself in to the building.  2 kids in tow, alone, 9 am, and going off 2 hours of total sleep from the night before.  I had contemplated skipping church and resting... but if we are to skip anything because of exhaustion, shouldn't it be play dates or errands? Cut things out to survive, yes... but church should not be one of them.  Anyway, so I forced myself in and started chatting with a friend:

Friend: Good morning! How are you?
Me: Oh, I'm ok.  Exhausted, Lulu was up all night, again :-)
Friend: Wow, well you don't look tired.  You look good to me
Me: Ha, that's not what my body is yelling to me right now

I often get this response when I say I am exhausted.  But I guess I carry exhaustion well... because no one believes me.  This got me thinking of judging moms we see on a daily basis.  Moms at the grocery store, moms at the gym, moms at church, single moms, married moms, newly separated moms, teenage moms, young moms, mature moms.  We judge and then we compare.  How does MY motherhood look compared to hers? How am I doing compared to her?

So, to show you that everyone has baggage.  Everyone has trials.  No one - NO ONE is perfect... I thought I'd let the pictures do the talking ;-)

Family Vacation.  Such a happy family - HA! DH is horribly ill and hardly got out of bed the entire weekend.  Cy is without a nap for 2 days and crying constantly and Mama is just trying not to cry over a "failed" vacation.  :-)

CHRISTMAS time!!!! Look at those perfect smiles! Layla just finished running into the gifts and screaming.  And Cy... well, the blanket is on his lap because he had no undies on... It was one of THOSE days ;-)

All smiles at Dewberry Farm! But if you ask my friend, Whitney or Maria... it was NOT all smiles.  Was probably one of the hardest days for me as a new mommy, juggling 2 kids in the heat, right before nap time. 

This one makes me laugh - New Years Day! What a great way to start the New Year - with family.  At IHOP, where Cy proceeded to scream the ENTIRE meal, spilled his milk (see there in the FULL cup), didn't eat a bite, and we had a 3 year old from another table who kept leaning over and watching us eat... very annoying... yes, if you let your kid lean over and stare at others while eating - don't.  We don't like it.  Even if we have kids too.  :-)

So those are some examples.  The pictures show smiles and happiness and maybe even a touch of perfection in the parenting area... but there was nothing perfect about them.  But one thing.  We love our kids.  We do the best we can, every single day.  We all parent differently, but we all love our children.  That, my friend, is perfection.  With God's grace in our failures and with a few tears, fake smiles, and wonderful photos - we make it through with amazing memories, wonderful experiences, and a grateful heart to God for blessing us with the chaos of children ;-)