MOPS International

Last Fall I called my sister in a major mom meltdown. She invited me to her MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group at her church. It was everything I needed and more! I felt so refreshed from their ideas on how to handle common situations. It was so comforting to hear the other moms going through the same thing as me talk about their kids and how they felt as moms. I only went three times before they ended in December, so the next January, a friend from my church and I started our own fake one at our church. Since we couldn't pay the MOPS dues required to be official, we called it MOPZ. We pretty much did the same thing and I think it went as well as it could have for our first year.

Since this is my last semester as a YPW I decided to do a girls Life Group instead of MOPZ. But no regrets at all because I get to go to the real MOPS at my sister's church and I am sooooo excited about it!!

Only moms with children ages 5 and under can attend. Gabe is 6, but since he is in Pre-K they said he is allowed to stay. Thank God!

So here's how it looks through my mom eyes:

First of all it's only every two weeks, so I wake up exited and feel full of purpose as a mother because today I am going to learn something new and be reminded how normal I am. I get myself and all the kids ready and load up the van (of course everyone has to look as cute as possible because as women we will be checking out each other's clothes and how cute our kids are)! I drive about 20 minutes to get there and possibly will get in a fight with one of my kids (most likely Gabe) and arrive feeling like a semi-bad mom for yelling at him. Two weeks ago everyone was happy the whole way and it felt great to arrive with no scuffles. Then I rush inside because I am probably just barely on time and I quickly steer my kids into nursery hoping and praying that no one cries or throws a fit with the nursery worker. My greatest fear at the moment is that Isaiah will throw such a big fit that I won't be able to go into my meeting. I know that's probably selfish of me, but true. Two weeks ago they all went in so smoothly. I felt so victorious! I know enough now to know that that doesn't mean I am a great mom who has it all together. It was just a good moment in my mom history.

After all is well with nursery, I finally arrive upstairs and can relax. I walk into a room full of other moms feeling the same way as I do, all having different mornings getting there, some crazy and some peaceful. I gratefully get my breakfast and coffee because I probably didn't have time to eat anything at home and for a brief moment I think how I can sneak some down to my kids since they probably didn't eat breakfast either. But then I remember they will get snacks in nursery so I move on. The next 30 minutes is social time for moms to connect and to give other moms time to arrive (because we all know mothers of preschoolers rarely arrive on time). I sit at my table, we all play an ice-breaker game, listen to a guest speaker, discuss what we heard from the speaker with our table, listen as our "mentor mom" brings us all back to Earth, and leave feeling on top of the world. Today is MOPS, and I can't wait!