* A Day with NieNie *

I discovered NieNie several months ago. I kept seeing these buttons on blogs everywhere:

"Who in the world is NieNie?" I wondered. Finally, one day, I clicked one of the buttons.

The day I clicked the button is the day NieNie decided to show her new face to the world. For the next hour, I was engrossed in her blog, reading her blog backwards, trying to figure out how this new face came to be. Weeping with her as she spoke of missing her face, laughing as she found humor in her situation and weeping again when she shared how her children wouldn't have anything to do with her in the beginning and kept saying they "missed their mommy."

By the end of the hour, I too had posted

on my own blog.

Fast forward a few months. Yesterday Mel   IM'd me. "Nienie is on Oprah today!"  Not an Oprah fan, I knew that for one day, I would become one. How could I miss this show???

I watched it. I cried. I was inspired. I saw beauty.

I wasn't inspired as a human being as I thought I would be however. I was inspired as a mom.

I have had so many horrid weeks in a row lately. Too little sleep, toddlers pushing every limit they can push, both my own and daycare kids, and other worries hovering around my husband and I.

And always my list. My never-ending to-do list.

I put the kids at the table for breakfast and lunch and I'm off working on my to-do's. I put them down for a nap and I hope they hurry and fall asleep instead of soaking up the cuddle time.  Three sets of hands reach up and tug on my pants as I try to get a meal fixed or laundry taken care of and I tell them they need to wait instead of stopping and picking them up and giving them the hug they want.

And then I watched Andrea, a stay at home mom, spend a day with Nienie. After her day, Andrea said she sat with the kids while they ate. She played games with her daughter and didn't get up once to check and email or switch the laundry. She slowed down. She enjoyed life as a mom.

Really, words aren't necessary from this point on. The video will do more than I ever could with my writing. So take the time, watch it and then, take the time and go hold your kids.

Be blessed,
Melissa j