Three of our kids play for their schools’ sport team (our daughter plays volleyball and two of our sons play soccer for their schools.)

If you are a parent, you know what that means for me, their mother.

Well, if you want to find me after 3pm, all you have to do is to look for me on 450 Annapolis Road which is the main road I use to drive back and forth.

Their games, practice and pick-up times can be at the same time or 10 minutes apart or worse. Sometimes dropping their cleats or jerseys pretty much keeps me on the road. Yes, sometimes they forget their stuff home and I have to take it. (But I don’t do it always because if I keep on doing it, they don’t learn responsibility.)

But these days, three of them are really good at remembering and preparing their stuff before morning. But today, my little one mistakenly switched his jerseys with his big brother’s jerseys. When we got to their school, my older son called to let us know that my little one had his jerseys. So, I dropped two my kids off and drove back home as fast as I could so that my older son could get his jerseys before he left for his school.

Then I grabbed my youngest son’s jerseys and drove back to his school.

So, I got to the school and headed to my son’s class. My youngest son’s classmates know me. Whenever I come to his class, I usually show my face through the glasses so that somebody sees me and calls for my son. This time, all his classmates were looking at me and didn’t call my son. They just stared at me. For a moment I thought I was invisible but the thing is they all were looking at me. So, I opened the door. The moment I opened the door, everybody shouted, “Happy Birthday Mrs. Banko!”

I looked like a 10 years old girl standing in front of an 11 years old boy who said to her, “I like you!” I mean, naturally I am not a shy person but if you catch me off-guard, you will find out that I’m in fact a very shy person.

I said, smiling, “Thank you guys!” And my son came out, closed the door behind him, took the jerseys from my hand and said smiling, “Happy Birthday Mom and I love you!”

Isn’t that lovely and sweet!

And my Berhan, oh how he surprised me! I thought he left for work. I mean I saw him off. I thought he left for the day. Little did I know that he came back with my favorite freshly cut red roses and big "I love you" balloon and stood at the door!

Oh, LORD, please help me to serve this family to the best I know how. I can’t pay them back for all the love and care they are showering on me but at least help me be the person You want me to be to each one of them. ///

P. S. Do you want to know what my teens said to me? "Happy 100 years birthday, Mom." Yeah, that sounds like a teenager wish, doesn’t it?