“I didn’t worry. I knew you’d be here.”
Those were my sixteen-year old son’s words to me this afternoon after he climbed into my minivan.
Normally, he takes the bus, but today that bus that we rely on was canceled. The call came in this morning, and in that moment my day changed.
I knew I had to leave at 3:20.
I knew I had to change afternoon plans.
I knew I had to sit in a long school line.
I knew I had to be there.
Sometimes it is really easy to dismiss our impact as moms, as parents.
We look at the really big stuff as the importants and yet, that gift of being there and them not worrying – it really is priceless.Sometimes it is really easy to think we aren’t doing enough or to overlook the simple things which really are the giant things.
He didn’t worry.
That is the gift.
You see, even if I couldn’t have been in that line I would have taken care of it, of him. I would have solved the problem.
I am there for him.
For them.
And that, that is the gift.
When he came out he didn’t look at the other vehicles or compare or wonder or worry. He just saw me and smiled.
Don’t ever dismiss the gift of letting them not worry.
I’ve shown up for all of my kids.
Sometimes it’s not perfect.
Sometimes it’s messy.
Sometimes it’s rushed.
Sometimes it feels like it doesn’t matter.
But I’m there.
In fact I have not a shadow of a doubt that my kids, no matter what, would say, “My mom wasn’t perfect, but she was there.”
Friends, that’s priceless.
Thanks for being there.
It matters.
-Rachel
Ps….I wrote this while waiting for him (again) to be done with work. And that pic is of him nine years ago. I love it so much, it captures his kindness. 
…and I have a chapter in my book about the strength of moms where I drove overnight after returning from Haiti to get this son home to Tennessee to get him to get medical care….we show up….we show up…here is the link to my book, “The Brave Art of Motherhood” -> https://amzn.to/3lygaRC
