MP Definition by Dena Joy Morrison (Allen, TX)

Stay-at-Home Mom * Mother of 4

Mommy power begins even before the babies arrive, when one of the things you love about your man is that he is going to be an incredible father…when you quit every unhealthy habit you have–from smoking to caffeine ON the day you find you are pregnant…it’s overcoming the panic in the middle of the night when you contemplate the REALITY of birth…it’s pouring over millions of options and choosing the perfect name for YOUR precious new one. It’s when you choose the best birth plan for your baby, and having the courage to change it, even right in the middle…

 Mommy power is struggling through early days of nursing, determined to be successful, and YOUR mom gets out of bed and comes across town in the middle of the night to help you!

 It’s having 3 babies under 4,one husband and home and volunteering to take care of your grandmom full-time at her house, because she’s taken such care of you all of your life.

 It’s two moms being able to get 25 loads of laundry washed, dried and folded at the laundromat, while caring for three toddlers, one baby and a dog with separation anxiety–and being back in time to pick up your five-year old from morning Kindergarten!

 It’s taking all the kids to play at McDonalds before naptime so you can put together the “First 25 years” of memories BEFORE the 25th birthday party!

 Mommy power is juggling 3 toddlers, making pancakes and conducting an in-home interview at once (and doing it well!)…it’s you and your sister loading your 7 collective children into the suburban for a “spontaneous” weekend away to an unknown destination.

 Mommy power is the breath you draw in the moment before you must tell your children their father has been killed…and the reality you face when nothing will ever be the same.

 It’s your sister standing in the gap for you, when you are grief-stricken…then you doing the same years later when she is unable to mother her own children.

 Mommy power is the glue that holds you together in the soul-splitting seconds when the officer tells you it’s your house on fire…and that your children are all right!

 Mommy power is your grief when you lose a baby through miscarriage…and your sadness when the baby was due.

 Mommy power is the strength to let your children stay with others when your life has spiraled out of control…and mommy power is the unparalleled LOVE for your children that brings you back from the brink…and it’s what gives you the will to turn your life around and learn to live again. And mommy power is working tirelessly without ceasing to bring them each home again, with a smile on their face…

 Mommy power is turning to God, putting God first in your life when nothing else makes sense…and seeing what God can do in your life when you let Him.

 It’s asking your children to stand with you in your wedding…it’s blending a new family…it’s a new pregnancy when your baby is 15!

 Mommy power is the comfort your arms offer your crying, hungry newborn as you visit him in the NICU…it’s what keeps you standing for the right to nurse him…it’s your prayers all through the night for his breathing to stabilize and his jaundice to heal…it’s bringing his baby blanket back to the hospital room for daddy to sleep with…and what brings him home in six days…

 Mommy power is loving your child when he’s in the worst trouble of his life…and standing firmly by his side as he works through it…counting the days until he comes home again…and doing all you must to ensure he will.

 Mommy power is helping your daughter pack to follow a dream…it’s sending your 17 year old son off to college, when it seems he just got home…and your heart is breaking over their departures.

 Mommy power is a name for all the love, comfort, understanding, tenderness…all the qualities inherently understood, which innately draw us nearer to our MOM. Mommy power is spiritually physical, intuitive, instinctive, untapped until you need it, comes when you least expect it, universally shared, personally defined and limitless.