a tender moment caught by mom -

kate has become the quintessential care giver of late and this morning i was fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of her in action without her knowing.

since moving to asheville it has been a struggle to get myself to the Y for all sorts of "not-so-good" reasons. one of which however has been because trey is going through a very clingy stage and really doesn't want to be left in child watch to play with the other kids. he fairly certain that he'd really be much happier with me 24/7. and considering we've been through this with kate you'd think the second time around i'd just press on....

we entered the child watch room and greeted the staff. i found a cute little playmate for kate to chum up with and helped her with the initial introductions. trey scanned the room and quickly realized what was about to happen - mom was about to leave. after reassuring him that i'd return soon i kissed both he and kate and i reluctantly left. as the belt on the treadmill began to turn i juggled feelings of both guilt and entitlement - all the while i was waiting for that little tap on my shoulder and the notification that i was needed in the child watch room. but there would be no tap. this day i would not be needed as i had been so many times in the past.

45 minutes quickly passed and i was starting to feel good about the opportunities the Y had to offer. i started to feel like this was going to be the start of something good for the 3 of us. i crammed in a few quick sets of weights and by this time an hour and 15 minutes total had passed and i was down right excited to retrieve my beloved.

i decided to creep in unannounced to see for myself how our two were fending. to my utter delight i found kate holding trey (who's more then half her size) in her lap as all of the children were gathered in a circle on the floor for for story time. trey spotted me before kate did and he joyously screamed out my name. before kate let go of trey i heard her say "see trey-trey, momma always comes back." that was a proud moment - a moment i will always cherish.

today reitterated to me that our precious little kate continues to gain confidence in herself and her surroundings and she's learning how to share more of the love that fills her heart. she is an amazing little girl and it warms my heart more then i ever thought possible to see her caring for her baby brother. trey will never know life without kate and for that i am thankful!