Another Mother's Day has come and gone, and it’s hard to believe that five Mother's Days ago I was in labor, which gave me my very best Mother's Day gift of all.  Our little Lilliana is growing up so fast.

This year she was old enough to really make me her own gift.  They made them in her preschool.  She brought it home Friday tied up in a little bag.  Her teacher told her not to tell us what it was and that we couldn’t open until Mothers’ Day.  Can you imagine how hard that is for a 3-year-old?

She didn’t tell me -- not a word.  She did, however, ask me every morning and after every nap if it was Mother's Day yet.  She asked a few random times during the day, too, just to be sure.  She really couldn’t wait to give me her gift.

On Sunday morning, she rushed into the bedroom very early first thing to wake me up.  She asked me if it was Mother's Day yet, and I said yes it was.  She actually said, “Oh, thank you, Mommy!”  I almost cried.  She actually thanked me for it finally being Mother's Day. 

She rushed back out to get her gift and the card to give to me. She had made a picture frame and decorated it herself with stamps of flowers, butterflies, and dragonflies, etc.  There was a picture of her in the middle that they had taken and developed at preschool.  The card she made for me had a tea bag attached for when I needed to “relax,” and Lilliana was dying to use that tea bag.

She and her Daddy also had a card and a beautiful gift that she was super excited about, but she had not been waiting days and days to give me that one.  I absolutely loved that one, too.

The handmade gifts, though -- the ones that they are so proud of -- these are the ones that we treasure, aren’t they?  These are the ones that are irreplaceable because our children’s precious little hands and hearts shaped them with love.  They are more beautiful and more precious because of their imperfections, the extra glue, or the crookedness. 

Lilliana put her whole heart into making my gift.  I know it from the pride and excitement shining in her face as she points out the details of her frame to me.  I am putting it on my wall.  I will treasure it always, and I told her so.  She wants to help me hang it, and I think that will be just great.  I can’t wait to see what she makes her Daddy for Father's Day.