Blessed to be a blessing!

Yesterday was mother's day and my hubby did such a beautiful job of making me feel valued and appreciated!! It wasn't just the pressies (though they were great!!), it was the thought behind them. He picked things he knew I would really like and he completely surprised me because I budgeted $50 that he could spend on me and even felt a little self indulgent for that, but he had some cash I didn't know about because someone from his work used some of his staff sales allowance and since that comes straight out of Brett's pay I didn't even miss it and the guy gave Brett the cash to pay for it. I got a beautiful card, plus some lovely homemade ones from Jaden and Bethany, I got a massage voucher (soooo looking forward to using that!), a lovely bunch of flowers, a willow tree angel (I seem to be gathering quite a collection of these, LOVE them!) and some yummy Darrel Lea licorice which is especially nice because I love licorice but no-one else in this house likes it so it's a treat I don't have to share!

Bethy was very cute wanting to keep smelling the flowers, usually by shoving her face right into the bunch which was rather funny. Brett made us all pancakes for brekky then we headed off to church where all the ladies got these GORGEOUS babushka dolls! I love them!!!! Our pastor's wife gave an awesome message on using our time and energy to encourage and uplift our kids and others as well and it was very challenging and exactly the reminder I needed of the importance of this task as last week there weresome very tough days, especially with Jaden!

 Then in the afternoon I went out for afternoon tea with my mum and little sis which was lovely and then for dinner my hubby whipped up this recipe from the latest Masterchef magazine, chicken stuffed with sage, pancetta and pine nuts served with sweet potato mash and veggies. It was very yummy, most impressed with my very own masterchef right here in my house! :-)

I could not have felt more loved, valued, appreciated and spoilt, such a lovely day and I am so blessed to be a mummy to my 3 treasures!!

 I was reflecting last night though on how easy it is to lap up all the blessings in my life and take them for granted, rather than remembering that I am blessed to be a blessing. Not all mothers in the world get to celebrate mothers day, many lose their babies to simple infections because they have no access to healthcare and sadly women have very little value in much of the world and are not celebrated at all. And so even in the midst of a day of special celebrations my thoughts and heart are turned towards the hurting and I am looking forward to some things coming up this month.

This Saturday is World Fair Trade Day and I am hosting a 'fair cuppa' here to help people understand more about fair trade and its importance in fighting poverty, then 2 weeks from today a friend and I are going to a birthing kit assembly day to see how it all works because we are currently working on fundraising ideas to host our own birthing kit assembly day later in the year. These kits cost $2.50 each and contain simple things which for mothers in the developing world are a luxury, like a clean razor blade to cut the umbilical chord, soap, a plastic sheet so they don't give birth on the dirt, it may sound simple but using dirty tools to cut the chord is enough to cause an infection that can kill a newborn baby and so many die within their first few days of life! My children are so precious to me and I cannot bear the thought of any mother losing her child, especially because of something that is easily preventable and so taken for granted by me in my blessed life!!

Many mothers also didn't get to celebrate mothers day yesterday because they died during pregnancy or childbirth, the statistics of this in a world where such wealth and opportunities exist really saddens my heart. The world needs to wake up to the value of women and mothers and prioritise them in health spending and budgets, we need to invest in the world's most precious resource, people!

I am blessed to be a blessing  and wish to honour and celebrate mothers all over the world today, doing the best they can with what they have, where they are and loving their precious children!!