A belated thank you to Chick-fil-a... and diabetes

Oh my, this post is so over-due. Back in May, I was awarded the Southlake Chick-fil-a Mother of the Year. It came right as we were closing on our new house, packing all our worldly belongings to be moved to said house, as well as getting ready to leave on our trip to Portugal in two days. Crazy times.

I was honoured with a plaque, a dinner for 30 of my friends, and FREE Chick-fil-a for a YEAR!

It was a celebration that was difficult for me. Because so often, I feel like I fail at this motherhood thing. I yell. I loose my cool. A lot of times I revert back to acting like a child. Chick-fil-a totally should have done a hidden camera thing to get the REAL truth about my Mom-skills.

But one thing I do know... I am a better Mom than I ever would have been, if diabetes not came into our lives.

Diabetes has taught me patience. Waiting for that BG to rise/fall. The "rule of 15s (which in our house is more like the rule of "whatever we think will work this time"). Shoving carb after carb into Elise, trying to get a stubborn BG to rise above 80.

It has given me mad trouble-shooting skills. How many nights have I spent pouring over Elise's logs, looking at numbers and trying to find the answers that are hidden among them? Quite a few. And it still amazes me when I tweak something, and it works!!!

I am not the type of Mom who, when her child falls and gets a minor owwie, will rush over to them with an ice pack and administer first aid while covering them in kisses. It's just not how I'm wired. I subscribe to the "it's-just-a-flesh-wound-rub-some-dirt-on-it-and-you'll-be-fine" school of thought. But diabetes has changed that in some respects.

It has taught me that mercy, grace, and kindness all need to be a part of a mother's toolbox. For the times when Elise fights me at shot time. Or when she's being belligerent due to a high or low BG. So I can just hug her and let her cry when she tells me she hates diabetes and just wants to be a normal kid. These are not "rub-some-dirt-on-it" moments.

But most of all, diabetes has taught me about strength. MY strength. When I just want to take the scale and throw it out the window, and the thought of poking my child one more time makes me want to cry. I dig a little deeper.

On the nights where it seems we're up every hour fending off lows, and I feel like I might throw up from the exhaustion; I just keep going.

During the times that Fred is out of town and it seems that those are the times that everything goes wrong at once, I keep calm and carry on (thanks Laura!). Well, I carry on... I still need to work on the keeping calm part.

So while diabetes is not my favourite auto-immune disease that attacks the beta cells in the islets of Langerhans; I can say that, without a doubt, it has made me a better Mother.

Thank you Chick-fil-a Southlake for the honour. And for giving me leverage in arguments with my children for many years to come. Because what the Mother of the Year says, goes!

One more amazing thing I have to mention about Chick-fil-a Southlake... they have agreed to host another fundraiser for Team Elise! I'll be doing a post with all the info soon!