"I love you!"

We are a pretty lovey-dovey family. We like to throw around the "I love you"'s and give lots of hugs and kisses on a regular basis. When we brought Reese and Jessenia into our home they were very affectionate but pretty wary of the "I love you"'s.
Reese is our kisser. If you ask him for a hug he immediately says, "I want a kiss too!" What mother doesn't love that!? He is pretty free flowing with those kisses. I told Mack that some day we might need to start calling him Loose Lips. We are hoping that when he decides girls other than his Mom are cute he won't think kissing everyone is as good an idea.
Jessenia is our hugger. She would love nothing more than to sit on my lap all day long. She wants to cuddle and have you squeeze her as tight as you can. She is kind of a poacher. She will wait until you set Brisbane down or Reese jumps off your lap and then she slides on before you suspect anything. One minute you think you are putting Brisbane down to make dinner and five minutes later you realize that you got hoodwinked into holding Jessenia. I have to admit, I kind of like that too.
When the kids first moved in with us, we would tell them "I love you" and get nothing back. This was kind of hard at first because we are so used to hearing "I love you" in return. But it wasn't unexpected and it certainly didn't hurt our feelings. They didn't really know us from the next guy. After a few weeks they started responding with "I love you". Reese was definately quicker at proclaiming his love but Jessenia came around eventually.
This brings me to last night. We were all piled on Mom and Dad's bed watching The Rescuers for movie night. I was holding Reese on my lap and he whispered, "Mom? I love you". I was completely taken by surprise. That is the first time that either of the kids has declared their love without being told first. I have to admit, I got a little misty.
We love our three little kids so much. Even on the hard days when we spend a lot of time crying and in time out there is still a lot of love in our home. I wondered if it would be harder to love a two and a three year old. I mean, it is easy to fall in love with a baby. But two and three year olds talk back and do some pretty obnoxious things some time. Before we got the kids it was something I worried about a lot. I worried that I wouldn't love them as much as I love Brisbane. I worried that they wouldn't love us. I worried and worried and prayed and prayed that I would love them and that they would love us.
Last night illustrated perfectly something that I was talking to one of my friends about the other day. You don't have to be related by blood to be family. My kids will be my kids for eternity because of the Atonement and because of our Heavenly Father's plan.
My favorite thing about being a mom is being loved and being able to love.
Reese? Jessenia? Brisbane? I love you!