Mothersss Day

Mother’s Day weekend was so nice this year. It started with Friday’s May Day festivities and lunch at Subway with a zillion kids & friends afterwards. I came home from work pretty late that night and Zeth was up wanting to play until midnight. Got to put an end to those 6p naps! So I got to bed around 1a and was up again 3.5 hours later heading to town with two of my girlfriends.

There’s this annual “Banana Man Chase” 5K sponsored by Jamba Juice that always sounded like fun and now I can check that off my list – and I know I’ll be doing it again. Thanks to Kathy & Wendy for the inspiration to participate in the wacky race this year. We had lots-o-fun chasing runners wearing 5’ banana costumes around the park, got our free Jamba acai bowls then jumped in the ocean for a cool down swim in the pristine morning water. After soaking in the sun for a while, we showered and changed at the beach then went shopping at the Banana Republic, aka “BR”, across the street. I’m such a frugal shopper normally that I never venture into stores like BR because I’d rather get more bang for my buck when buying clothes. But while trying on clothes it was like the heavens opened and I suddenly became aware of what really nice fabric feels like compared to the cheap stuff I normally wear. I get why some people are willing to pay 2-5x more for an article that may look the similar from a less expensive store because the way these clothes were fitting and feeling was truly a revelation. I now get the difference and am a fan of the BR. Too bad my wallet also gets the difference. Thank goodness for clearance racks.

After spending a lovely day with my girlfriends, I got home, cleaned up then Ram & I took the kids over to the Foodfest at BYUH and left them with a sitter while Ram took me out to the Ambassador Dining at the Polynesian Cultural Center. There was a locals-only special rate for Mother’s Day so we went with a bunch of friends and stuffed ourselves on crab legs, prime rib, macadamia nut chicken, coconut mahi mahi and on and on. It was delicious.

Got to bed around midnight again (after only 3.5 hours of sleep the night before and a very busy day) only to be awakened by Zeth vomiting his guts out at 3a. He didn’t miss a surface, including his sister. Caring for a sick kid is a perfect way to start Mother’s Day. Luckily Zeth got everything out relatively quickly and all 4 of us were up and in good spirits despite the foul circumstances. So after washing bedding, walls, carpet and kids we all got back to sleep around 4:30a. Then we all slept in until almost 9 and missed attending church at our ward which starts at 8. Not to worry, we had already planned to attend Ram’s singles ward he is currently serving in which starts at noon. I really needed that extra 2 hours of sleep-in time. That was my first Mother’s Day gift from the family.

We decided there would probably not be a better day to perform Zeth’s baby blessing in church than Mother’s Day. Traditionally infants are given a name and blessing in our church on the first Sunday of the month following their birth but we had to wait to have Zeth’s blessing until his adoption was finalized and he was officially our child. And to make it even more special, we wanted to have him blessed in Ram’s ward with all the single students. There are no kids officially in his ward so it’s always fun when we show up and break up the silence a bit. There was a special spirit as I held Zeth on my lap surrounded by men who hold and honor the holy priesthood with their hands placed lightly on his bobbing-weaving-curious head.
I knew Zeth would make it interesting because he is just so active and sitting still was no small feat. He started calling loudly for his sister to come join us, he squirmed and fought and begged to ‘walk, walk walk’ and when that didn’t work, he reached up and lightly tickled the brethern’s palms above his head and started playing with their arms. Amid the comical antics, it was difficult to really listen to the beautiful blessing descending from his father above but I couldn’t help but feel like I was being held in a warm heavenly embrace and it just made up for all the years of sadness on Mother’s Day in years past before I was given the opportunity to actually be a mother. It was a special event and the spirit of motherhood was somehow magnified in the meeting that followed. We have a rare & wonderful open relationship with Zana’s birth mother; I’ll just call her KC. So this week KC and her sister are here for a vacation and we got to spend some time with them on Mother’s Day. After church we visited the temple grounds together then had them over to our house for dinner. It has been 4-years since KC’s last visit to our island and Zana was thrilled to get to meet her birthmother again. I’m sure the feeling was mutual all around.
KC & her sis came back Monday night for FHE with us at the Anderson’s house and stayed the overnight with us so they could spend a little more time with us and hit the north shore beaches and the Polynesian Cultural Center without a long drive back to their hotel again. This morning we went to breakfast at the Hukilau Café for some “light and luscious” pancakes. Spending time with them is so comfortable it feels just like having my sisters here for a visit. Love those women. I couldn’t have asked for a better birth mother for my daughter and I’m thrilled we can share some of Zana’s life with her.