That's My Real Mom

This evening the kids and I joined my sister and her family for a walk around the neighborhood. The weather was lovely ... perfect for an evening stroll. We ran into an old friend and her 4 year old granddaughter. While the adults chatted, the kids ran up and down the sidewalk chatting and playing. I overheard the 4 year old child ask my 7 year old, Isaac, if I was his real mom. He gave her one of those "duh" looks that all 7 year old boys seem to have mastered by this point in their lives and said without hesitation, "Well ya. She's not fake is she? She's my real mom because she loves me and I love her." Isaac's innocence touched me. Tonight as I replay the scene in my mind I'm reminded of a passage in The Velveteen Rabbit... one of my favorite childhood stories.

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

-- by Margery Williams, from The Velveteen Rabbit --

Thank you, kids, for making me real. I love you.

Love,
Mommy

The attached picture was taken this evening after our walk ... pictured are Chase, Alyssa, Nathan, Isaac, Nita and Brandon (l-r)