Lia and Alia (And a Favorite Day of My Life)

Yesterday we had a little piece of heaven in our home. I don't know if words can describe it, so I'm just going to post all of the pictures and show you.

But first, I feel like I need to give a brief update on what's been going on here:

• Our Book Launch: Thank you SO much for your amazing support last month as we launched Motherhood Realized. We got to #27 in Amazon (out of more than a million books...I can hardly believe it), and we were able to hit #1 in Motherhood AND Parenting. Took my breath away. Eric and my children were the best cheerleaders. I pretty much stayed in my pajamas that whole week, but it was a dream come true!  (It took a few weeks for us to see if we were going to hit the NYT Bestsellers List, and we unfortunately never got on there, but I am totally okay with that. The NYT list would be such an honor, but it turns out that our status on Amazon helped us achieve the title of "Bestseller"--so that is beyond exciting.  And, really, what I care about most is that this book is strengthening mothers and making a difference in their lives (which it is...we're getting emails about it every day). So, yes, the book is launched. We are happy! And the world is starting to find out about Power of Moms.  

• My Mom: Those of you who read this blog are honestly the most compassionate people in the world. Thank you for caring about my mother and for asking about how she is doing with her Alzheimer's. I have been able to have so many sweet experiences with her over the past month, and I wish I could sit down and record all of them. Life is moving quickly, and my writing time is so limited. Eric is helping me to get things organized so that this most important writing (that really fills me) can happen more often. But until then, I'm just squeezing it in where I can. If you could see the state of my house right now, you might wonder why I am even typing this.  :)

Here are a few pictures from our visit to see my mom right before Easter. My sister Page and three of her children were there, too!

All right, my little guy is getting a bit restless, so I'm going to get right on with this story about our "little piece of heaven" Saturday.

My 14-year-old, Alia, has a dear friend at school named Lia, who was adopted from China a year ago to an amazing family in our community.

Alia's birthday was in January, and I asked her if she wanted a party.  She responded that she wanted to wait a few months and, instead, put on a birthday party for Lia.  Although Lia had a nice family party for her first birthday here in the States, she had never had a party with friends, and Alia felt it was her privilege to do that for her.

So Saturday was the day...and Alia planned EVERYTHING.

She had sent out individualized, hand-written invitations two months in advance and coordinated with all of Lia's best friends to make sure they would be at our house at 11am sharp.

When Lia's mom texted us, saying they were about to arrive, a hush came over the group, and we waited with great anticipation:

See my daughter's face? (Alia is in the yellow sweater.) She was so excited:

I snapped this picture through our bathroom window. So sneaky, right?

Spencer and Ethan were in charge of opening the door for the "SURPRISE!"

And this is one of my favorite pictures that I have ever taken in my life. The exposure was set a little too bright on my camera, but do you know what? This is exactly how it felt when we opened the door. Like light was entering our house. Grace (who videotaped the whole thing from behind) said, "An angel was walking inside."

I caught this hug as Alia welcomed Lia to her party:

Look at these two girls. I'm pretty sure they knew each other before this life.

They started with a bunch of games at our dining room table:

Lia would have played Uno the whole time. She loves that game:

And then we served lunch. Alia cooked the whole thing herself (she'd planned the menu, made sure no one had any allergies, and even had the bowls and forks out). I just did the "dishing up."

Such cute butterfly jell-o pieces:

And since Lia loves the movie "Frozen," Alia had hung snowflakes from the ceiling:

And, of course, she'd prepared our typical balloons and streamers:

And she'd made Lia a cake--with a LEGO girl on top made by Ethan--to kind of look like Lia:

Here are all the girls before we sang:

And cute Lia was smiling so much that she couldn't blow out the candles, so Alia helped her:

We all had cake and ice cream (Eric was there to help dish it up):

Then they played, "Put the Nose on Olaf." (Lia didn't want to play, but she had a great time watching. She'd never even heard of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" before and thought that was the funniest thing.)
 

Grace sat with her arm around Lia throughout the whole game. They will be at school together next year, when Alia goes to high school and Grace gets to the middle school. Lia is right in between their grades.

Here's the final placement of the carrot noses:

 Then it was time to open presents:

Each girl got her gift from the table and sat down on the couch next to Lia.

Lia is just learning to read, so as she opened each card, she said, "Will you read this to me?"  I was choked up during that whole process--as I watched these young teenage girls reading sweet messages of love to Lia. I'm just including all of the pictures here because I couldn't choose between them:

Alia had decorated Lia's desk at school earlier this week and given her a present then,

but she also had these painted letters for Lia to hang in her bedroom:

There have been a few times in my life as a mother when my children have done something so beautiful that I couldn't even find the words to express the feelings of my heart. This was one of those times.

In our book, Deliberate Motherhood, I learned from one of our authors that the expression "Olé" came from an old tradition when people would see the Divine in a performance or in a work of art, and they would shout, Allah! Allah! Allah! (Which referred to God.) Over time, the shout was changed into Olé! Olé! Olé!

As I watched my daughter and her friends take care of Lia and create this special experience for her, I was overwhelmed by the Light of the Divine. It simply flooded our house.

I, personally, am so hesitant to invite people over.  I just typically don't feel very "put together." I'd been at a community service project all morning, and I hadn't had a chance to shower or do my hair. Our guest bathroom had the lid off the toilet tank because the black cylinder-thing in there needs to be pushed down each time the toilet is flushed, and we just haven't had a chance to get it fixed yet. Our plants on our front porch have died again, and we pretty much have weeds growing all over our front lawn.

But no one who came to Lia's party cared one bit about those things. 

It was pure love. Every bit of it.

Alia had even spent her own money on the party, and she kept the costs of the entire thing to about $20.  It was amazing to see how she had planned every single detail with such beauty and grace.

I wish I could write more. I wish I could capture more of this beautiful life that is swirling around me.

I need to record more in the coming weeks--because there is something so powerful and so special going on right now at this stage of my life, and I'm afraid if I don't write about it, I won't remember it.

But I think this is good for today. I'm just grateful I got to be a part of this and have the chance to feel so much love from our Creator.

My Mom's First Book Signing

I go to my Mom and Dad's house pretty much every Thursday night to make dinner, take care of my Mom, and give my children a chance to enjoy their grandparents.

Well, this week we are in the middle of one of the biggest projects of my life--launching our new book, Motherhood Realized and trying to get it on the NYT Bestsellers' list by Saturday--and I didn't know how I was going to balance my time during my visit with all of my responsibilities. (I try to stay off my phone and the computer when I'm with my parents, or course.)

Then this idea came to me:

What if I did a book signing with my mother and offered them to the first x number of people who purchased 10 copies online? 

The more I thought about this idea, the more exciting it became to me. So we got the plan together, spruced up the giveaway package, and included it here on our book page.

My mother has never written a published book. She has lived a life that is beautiful, and her love and teachings carry on through the lives of her children, but most of her writing consists of dozens of journals filled with ideas in shorthand--private little messages she wrote to herself and to God. She never felt that she had anything specific to teach anyone else.  Oh, if only she could see herself for who she really is...

So last night, I went to her house, and we had the sweetest book signing that has ever taken place in the history of the world. I can't wait to tell you about it.

First, my husband (a.k.a. my biggest supporter in the WORLD) took our children to buy party supplies (balloons, hats, paper goods, streamers...) and then coordinated this massive art project in the kitchen to create a "Happy Birthday" sign for Motherhood Realized that we could hang during the book signing.

Here's the finished project before we rolled it up to put in the car. (Alia painted the book on the left, Grace painted the logo, the boys painted the letters...with help from their dad.)

When we got to my parents' house, we gave them big hugs, and then I said, "I have got to tell you what's been happening this week! We launched our new book, and then it rose to #1 in Motherhood on Amazon, and it's been selling like crazy, and now we're hoping to make it to the NYT Bestsellers' list by THIS SATURDAY, and we have moms all over the world buying the book and joining our community, and tonight I brought a whole stack of books so YOU can sign them with me, Mom! We're going to have a little party! And we have balloons and streamers and party hats, and a cake, and it is going to be wonderful!"

They were so excited. My mom hugged me and kissed me over and over again, and my dad got a litle teary-eyed when I explained why I wanted my mom to sign the books.

"You never had the chance to write a book, Mom." I said. "But you are my inspiration! Everything I do is because I want other people to feel the love that you gave to me. And there are people out there who have never met you, but they know and love you because of the stories I share about you."

She smiled shyly and said, "Well, I never wanted any...." (then she trailed off--not knowing the right word to say).

"Praise." my dad said softly. He knows her.

"Yes!" she exclaimed--relieved that he knew what she was looking for. "Yes, I never wanted any praise. But I do love my children so much. And I always tried to be kind. I don't know why anyone would want a book signed by me, but, sure, I'll sign them!"

So we went in the living room and played beauty parlor:

 

And then we hung up the fun poster:

 And recorded this little video:

After that, Grace brought out the present she'd wrapped for me:

And I opened the gift to find this BEAUTIFUL token of love--a hand-painted daisy in our Power of Moms colors (that's going in my office):

My boys went to play handball for a bit, and Gracie went into the kitchen to start on the cake.

And we had a fun dinner party--complete with hats and balloons...

And, of course, the darling six-year-old who provides comic relief:

Then the kids got settled into an activity in the back room while my mom and I sat at the table and started signing books.

This is where it gets PRECIOUS. I can hardly even write about it without smiling ear to ear.

The process went something like this (I am NOT making this up).

"Mom, we just published a new book!" (Because by this time, she'd totally forgotten our previous conversation.)

"You did?!!!!" she replied--totally surprised and enthusiastic.

"Yes! Here it is!" I said, handing her a copy.

"Motherhood Realized...oh, what a beautiful title. And look what a lovely book!"

"There are some people who bought the book who want you to sign it."

(Laughing) "ME??" They want ME to sign it? Why would they want THAT?"

"Well, because you are the inspiration for the book, and you are such a wonderful mother. Will you sign your name?"

"Well, okay. Where should I write it?"

"How about right here? --But don't bend the cover back, Mom. We don't want to crease it. This is for someone else."

"Okay," (reluctantly resisting the urge to make a crease) "What do I write?"

"You can just sign your name--Zoe."

"Shouldn't I say, 'With Love'?"

"Sure, if you'd like."

"Yes, it has to be with love." she replied emphatically.

So with more effort than I realized it would take, she carefully signed the book, and then I added my name.

But when I tried to bring over a second book, it was just too much for her. She started to get confused, and she became very overwhelmed, and she just couldn't do another signing.

So I took her in the kitchen, and we chopped some vegetables for our salad for a few minutes, and, once she was calm, I brought out a fresh book.

"Mom, we just published a new book!" I said--with as much excitement as the first time.

"You DID?!!!" she replied--with equal, if not more enthusiasm than before.

And then we went through the WHOLE experience above...all over again.

Every single step.

Twenty times.

It took more than two hours, and in between each signing, I handed her my phone with this photo on it (to give her mind a rest and a "restart"):

And by the time I left the room with the signed book and came back with the new one, she was ready to be excited again that her daughter had published a book!!!

Is that not the sweetest thing in the world? I got to share that moment with her over and over and over again. I got to tell her 20 times how she is my inspiration. I got to explain to her exactly why people wanted her to sign their books. And EVERY SINGLE TIME she was about to write her name, she said,  "It HAS to be 'With Love'."

This has been an amazing week for me. I can't even put into words how it feels to have so many people supporting this dream. 

Part of me wishes my mom could "really be here" for all of it. I wish she could come to our official book launch next Thursday, and I wish she could understand exactly what is happening and jump up and down with me over every success.

But the other part of me realizes that even though she can't express it, she knows.

And one day we'll get the chance to sit down and talk all about it. (And maybe you can be with us, and we can have one big party...)

If you would like to get one of the 20 books that my mom and I signed, there are only a handful left. Simply email your receipt for 10 copies of the book to 10@powerofmoms.com, and you'll receive a link to download our Premium Power of Moms package (valued at $216), plus, if you're one of the first 20, I'll personally mail you one of the signed books. 

And please--even if you can't buy 10 books or even one book, if you can share our Book Page with everyone you know--and encourage them to support this cause that is absolutely centered on love for families, I would be SO appreciative!

With MUCH love,

April