In my own life I did a little math and confirmed that. My hat is off to fellow parishioners Kathy Larsen, Gina Urbanski, Madonna Nelson and others who can top these numbers. And of course there are mothers of previous generations who make my efforts seem like a walk in the park. But here are the numbers anyway.
-- 19 years. That’s how much of my life I was pregnant or nursing, and often both at the same time. Great memories come from those busy years with a young, growing family.
-- 20 years of diapers. At times we had three kids wearing them at the same time. Changing them became something like an assembly line job. Older kids never lacked in experience. According to my deficient math skills, that would be at least 50,000 soiled diapers. To borrow another person’s phrase: We were changing the world, one diaper at a time.
-- Two children in Heaven, who would be in high school by now. We lost them because of miscarriages. We never got to see them grow up, but we asked God to cradle and care for them. They now intercede before Him for our family. We received two consolations during our grief. The first is the amazing doctors who determined the cause of the miscarriages and allowed us to have five more healthy children after the premature deaths. The other consolation comes from a reminder by Blessed John Paul II: "Human life is precious because it is the gift of a God whose love is infinite; and when God gives life, it is for ever.”
Praise be to God! We never really lost those two lives, and we still have an eternity to spend with our babies.
-- Three decades at St. Columbkille School. We have had children enrolled for 20 years now and hopefully will continue that for another nine. That adds up to a lot of marble parties, First Communions, D.A.R.E. graduations, etc. But after it’s all over, I’ll miss it terribly. And related to that:
-- Eight school years with Mrs. Loeffler. So far every child in our family has had the privilege of having her as a first-grade teacher. Mrs. English is determined to break that string, though, when our ninth child reaches first grade.
-- 25 years of hormones and rebellion. If we can live through it, my husband Tim and I will be parents of teenagers for 25 continuous years. We’ll wear our wrinkles and gray hair proudly.
These numbers are just a beginning because a mother’s job never ends. Happy Mother's Day to all moms, especially to those who face extraordinary challenges not necessarily related to the size of their families, and to adoptive mothers who so generously opened their lives to others. A mother’s life is full of demands, but even more so it is filled with beauty and blessings. Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty eloquently described part of this grace:
“The most important person on earth is a mother.
She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral.
She need not.
She has built something more
magnificent than any cathedral –
a dwelling for an immortal soul,
the tiny perfection of her baby’s body…
The angels have not been blessed with such a grace.
They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to
bring new saints to Heaven. Only a human mother can.
Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature;
God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation…
What on God’s good earth is more glorious than this; to be a mother?”
Amen.
Inspired by this Year of Faith we will be posting columns like this from Susan Szalewski about exploring and/or deepening our faith. Watch for it on Thursdays.
