Lessons I got to learn from excellent role models

Well these last weeks away from home have been hard and yet they have been good. I am so thankful that the girls and I got to go on a visiting trip. It was hard to be away from Shaun the majority of the time. It was hard on the girls...I am not interested in the whole single parenting thing when my spouse if alive and kicking. The girls are not interested either. We all need, love, and adore Shaun. We love to be around him. There is a reason why God made 2 parents...it's a necessary thing really. I don't know how single parents or parents who's spouses are unavailable do it. I know that they must be haggard the majority of the time it takes to raise a child. I applaude them and ache for them all at the same time...but that's a tangent for another day.
On a little, yet important, side note...my husband is the most amazing man I know. He just rocks my world on a regular basis with his ability to be a great man of God, husband and father. I am blessed beyond measure. There is no greater gift to me than that. We are not a couple that likes to be apart even for the day. Unfortunately we are not independently wealthy so "for the day" has to be. We are not pillars standing alone. We go on a premise that when the Bible says "the two shall become one"...it means it and so that's how we do it...and yet again here is another tangent for another day.
Ok back to my excellent role models...one of the good things that was amazing about this trip was that I got to visit some old friends from college days. I got to spend a week in each of their houses and just watch them go about life. They both have completely different lives, in some ways, but they are both amazingly calm and competent mothers. They cook amazing meals for their families and have dinner every night as a family. They just love their kids. They love spending time with them. They love including them in their lives in even the littlest things of every day life. They are happy families. They have husbands who are devoted to them and the children. They work as a team. The moms are calm and not much ruffles them. It was a wonderful thing to see...especially compaired to the frantic world I seem to live in at the moment. I doubt I can express to you what I saw and the good it did me. It's not that their world is perfect. It's that they are content in their world and work to be Godly amazing mothers. It's not that the job they are doing is not exhausting. It is. They face the same challenges any mother with 3 or 4 kids ,who are all 4 and under, faces. They just do it with grace. They do it with joy. It's a minute by minute choice for them. And that is what they choose. Their kids are amazing children because of it. There is not much strife in their home. I don't know but somehow I don't see that much when I get to glimpse into families. So I have to say I was honoured and blessed to be able to watch and learn much from these beautiful women who I get the priviledge to call friend. Thank you Andi and Char for being such gracious and strong women. You are beautiful to me. Thank for teaching me new ways to be a mom. My family will benefit from the lessons I learned from you in this last month.