I’m unsure of the author, but I LOVE the quote, “The most precious jewels you will ever have around your neck are the arms of your children.” When I consider the many things I am grateful for, I always thank God for blessing me with my children. I love my boys, they are my world, and they will always be my babies no matter how old they are. How funny to consider the connection of your unborn child through their belly by the umbilical cord… it seems to me that physical connection is never really severed, but merely transferred invisibly to mom’s belly, and heart, instead.  Those moments in life that just take your breath away always hit the pit of your stomach or deep in your heart, good or bad. What about mothers intuition, when we just know something is going on, and we feel it deep in our belly? Or, those moments in life when you’ve had to wipe their tears over something that hurt them deeply, or just the opposite, made them over the moon happy, and you feel it deep in your heart? Yep, it’s the invisible umbilical cord.

Pregnancy was not easy for me. At eight weeks, my body seemed to look at my little miracles as more of a virus it needed to fight against, and sadly my first two ended in miscarriage. Though my third time ended successfully, it started with the same dread when the typical pain came at eight weeks, the bleeding, the race to the clinic, the ultrasound to see what was going on. This time, however, I was told my womb oddly showed the signs of a baby at 4 months. Everything was fine, I should go home and relax. I was hardly home in a chair when I received a call from the clinic to apologize. Apologize that in their hurry to read results they grabbed the imaging of the patient before me. Apologizing that my baby was nowhere to be seen in my womb… my womb was empty. I knew the routine, go into the clinic each day for the next week for blood work, evaluating my hormone levels. I swore I would never put myself through this again, it just wasn’t meant for me. But, I was wrong. Day four brought a call from my doctor asking me to come into the office for another ultrasound the next morning. He couldn’t explain it, but my hormone levels had actually jumped up. I was so excited, and yet afraid to be excited!

The next morning found me waiting again for an ultrasound, so full of the gallons of water I had to drink, that I think I swished with each step I took. Lying on the table, gooped with a ton of gel on my skin, the technician rolled the wand back and forth over my belly, and then stopped, “click.” More rolling, “click”… and then a gasp. I will never forget the excited voice telling me to look, as she turned the monitor, and I saw my baby’s heart beating on that screen. My little miracle, alive, growing… and he continued to do so until December 31st that year, when he was born at over 10 lbs. Henry Ward Beecher is quoted as saying, “Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven.” I thanked God for blessing me with that beautiful gift from heaven, and I did again 6 years later when I was gifted with my second, and last, little bruiser.

Along with a gap in age, my boys are two very different people. Where one loves to tell stories of life adventures, the other loves to listen. Where one is content to stay home and just relax after a long week, the other needs to stay busy with friends. But, as with most siblings, there is the secret connection, the jokes of childhood, a lifetime of growing up with each other, and really knowing who the other is deep down. And, like any mama, I want to know that if I go home to be with the Lord tomorrow, my boys will stay connected. That they will always have a bond that says, “I’m here for you.” 

I love watching them together from the background of a moment in time. Catching sight of my youngest poking at his big brother when they are stuck in a space too long together… just like when they were little.  Seeing them play a game together, and making each other laugh. I mean a real, deep from the belly laugh, where you cannot even talk. Chuckling to myself when they groan in unison when asked to help me with something physical here at home… but knowing they will both come home and do it for me.

I can honestly say they are my most precious jewels.  They have not only adorned my neck and arms, but also my heart. As much as a parent molds their child’s life, we forget to note how much they mold ours in return. I cannot imagine my life without them. Thank you, God.

– Blessings