Motherhood Transcends All Barriers

I've been musing over this lately: it seems that no matter what the backgrounds of the two mothers are, the simple reality that they both have young children is an automatic bond. I attended a Bible study this morning for the first time, and several of the women in my small group had young kids in a similar age range as mine. We immediately had something to talk about--and moved onto other subjects as well, but our children were an immediate common interest.

But what if you can't even speak the same language? Motherhood is still a bond. I went to an Asian grocery store after the Bible study since it's in the same part of town. Once we were in the (very small) store, my almost-3-year-old "helped" me push the double stroller containing her two brothers around the store. We were in the store about 1 minute when a little Asian boy came up and started "helping," too. Now, I need not tell you that it took us a while to maneuver through the cramped aisles, but my daughter and the little boy had a great time. His mother asked me in broken English about the ages of my children (and I reciprocated) and then proceeded to get my daughter a lollipop once we were at the checkout (this is after my boys tipped over a big box of mangoes or some similar fruit and she cheerfully picked them all up for me). It was a delightful reminder that mothers all have similar concerns and loves, even when our backgrounds and language are so different from each other. It was also a sweet testimony that some women are born nurterers and love children no matter whose they are--I like that my little guys had a nice surrogate Asian mother looking out for them in this little store while I picked out my baby bok choy.