A Little Encouragement

I love being a mom for millions upon millions of reasons. One of the many joys of parenthood are the sweet little voices of my children as they encourage and affirm. Like when A sees her daddy running and excitedly cheers, "Go, daddy," then turns to me and proudly says, "My daddy runs fast." Today she encouraged her mommy, who does not run fast.

The Hill looms before me like Everest. I have no idea how long this hill really is; I just know when you stand at the bottom with a desire to run and a double jogger filled with two children and books, it is quite intimidating. "I can run this," I tell myself. I haven't run a hill since having C, so this is my first time in over a year and a half to run up anything steeper than a speedbump or maybe the curb to TCBY. I begin to push and slowly trudge up the bottom quarter of the hill. Maybe I can't run this, yet. My legs are already aching from an attempt to do Tae Bo a few days earlier.

"All right, Pumpkin. Mommy's going to need your help getting up this hill." A understands Mommy needs encouragement and does not intend for her to get out and help push the stroller. "You can do it, Mommy," she says. I begin to run again all the way to the half-way point. I stop and look up. The hill is steep and I can feel my heart beginning to pound. "Keep running, Mommy. You can do it," my daughter cheers from the stroller. "You're right, sweetheart. Mommy can do this."

I take a deep breath and with determination try my best to sprint the last half. I can only imagine what I must look like. I can't seem to get my heels down and am running mostly on my tip-toes. A car passes by slowly and the driver rolls down the window and shouts what I think is, "What a feat!" That's what I hear at least. Of course, he could have been shouting, "Pick up your feet." But I am encouraged nonetheless. I finally crest the hill and hear A shout, "You did it, Mom." We both say, "Yea," then I add a, "thank you, God and thank you, A for encouraging mommy." We run back down to the bottom of the hill; C sleeping soundly through our entire run. I look back up and realize that the hill probably isn't more than a quarter of a mile but for A and me, today, we conquered Everest.