Down syndrome Awareness Month--- 31 for 21, LIFE is...

LIFE is not measured by the number of breaths we take,

but by the number of moments that take our breath away.



I love that quote. My sister knows it is my favorite and a few years ago bought me a tile with that quote embedded on it. It sits on my fireplace mantel. I also have a HUGE canvas that reads "Life is Beautiful." That should come as no surprise if you read my blog. :)

I have many of those moments. They can be simple moments that force me to pause. And they can be just grand.

Like the other day at Naomi's soccer practice, these two were sitting together cheering for their sister ...that is a moment. I pause, I smile and I take it in.





They can be grand too! Like last Saturday. I am in the car heading, I have no idea where. I am with my husband, on a date, that he has planned. One of our "30 hour dates", which means we are sleeping in, because we are not returning home until the following day! We have a wonderful dinner and the next day he takes me to see-



How great is that?! THAT is a moment.


Or the other night, my girlfriend was over and she casually said, "come into the kitchen I want you to open something" and I pulled this out of the box...


J N B K --- I wanted to cry. I am not sure if I did.


Not that I center moments around dates or gifts, because really, they are the simple things that happen everyday in our lives. Like this evening when I got home from taking Jaden to practice. Naomi and Brynn had made me "scrolls". They had taken pieces of construction paper and rolled them into scrolls. They were magic scrolls, as they informed me. There was not a word written on them, but they each stood up and recited from their scrolls something like....

Mom, I love you. You are the greatest mom. Can we have a dog? Dinner was good. I had a great day. Do I have to take a bath? Is Halloween tomorrow? I love you. etc.

That took my breath away because I couldn't stop laughing. :)


For some reason I recognize the moments so much more than I did before. I know why, but to put into words, that may take me all night. There was a brief time, a whole year, I lived in fear of what the future moments would be like. Unfortunately that kept me from enjoying the day. I don't do that any more.

Today, was a beautiful day. With lots of moments!