The best title

He puts his arms around my neck and smiles up at me..."you're my best friend."  Time stops and my heart melts into a puddle.  I pray for God to protect our relationship, that He will allow us to be "best friends" into his adulthood. 

I can see it now the bits of independence he's gaining...making choices, forming thoughts and opinions, wanting to do his own thing. 

Sean and I talk about the tension of SE growing up and how excited we are to see the man he becomes, but at the same time hesitant to want to embrace it because it means letting go of a little person who right now thinks mom and dad (yes, he's begun calling us that) are his best friends. 

A friend has all of 4 of her dear babes going to school this year, one in middle school, two in elementary and one in pre-K.  I couldn't even let my thoughts go to the day where SE is in school 5 days a week let alone all of our kiddos.  But I know that day is on the horizon...and he'll probably be overly excited to go and to do and to be.  Until then though I'll soak in his delightful personality, cherishing all the moments where he will randomly throw his arms around me and declare me to be his best friend.

I've struggled a little after quitting a corporate job outside the home to be a stay at home mom.  Someone asked me recently what I do.  I paused, swallowed hard and answered "I'm a stay at home mom".  Why was it so difficult to say? With the answer brought about feelings I hadn't experienced since making the decision to leave work. 

Is that all I am...a stay at home mom.  No, that's not all I am.  I am a little boy's (and a beautiful little girl's) momma, a little boy who is worth the sacrifice of my wanting to be able to reply with a brilliant braniac title to the question "what do you do?".  I get to pray over him every day and speak truth and life into his heart:  you, Sean Edward, are a man of God, you are strong, you are valiant.  You have what it takes. 

We stay at home mommas are in the thick of it; we are on the front lines of the battlefields, affirming hearts, shaping minds, being best friends to our little ones so one day they will understand and value the trust we have worked so diligently to establish.  Being a best friend to my son, it's perhaps the BEST title I've ever been given.