Hail to the Chief ~

Last week, Jake decided to run for Student Body President at his school. He responsibly went to the mandatory meeting to receive instruction on guidelines of the race ... because nobody likes a dirty political campaign ... and then he came home to announce his new adventure.

In the back of my mind (okay who am I kidding ... it was right up front in my mind) all I could think of was "WE'RE PLANNING A FRICKIN' WEDDING RIGHT NOW ... THIS IS HORRIBLE TIMING!" But I patted him on the back and told him to press forward.

He made some posters and hung them sporadically around the junior high campus. He came up with a cute slogan "VOTE JAKE SHAKER for DECISION MAKER", and passed out some cute handouts. His speech was taped and would be shown to the nation of 7th & 8th graders during 2nd hour on Friday. All that needed to be done was done, and the election day was here.

Friday morning, we hopped up early and decorated Kacey's car with clever slogans (because she has a sunroof and this would prove to play an important role on our way to school) and we were off to make sure we drew attention to our bad selves.

We piled kids in the car, handed them each an American flag, and Kacey blared her previously downloaded iTunes (specially prepared for Jake's campaign). For one slow mile, we drove to the tunes of "Hail to the Chief" and the Phoenix Sun's song as Jake stood out the sunroof and his little friend Maddy and little brother Garrison waved their proud American flags and shouted "Vote for Jake!" This continued throughout the parking lots and repeated several times thereafter.

My role that morning was clear. Be loud, and be supportive. I honked that horn like it had never been honked before. I waved to the crowd of young teenagers and gave them a very cool thumbs up as if to say ... "I have no pride whatsoever ... please just vote for my son."

During this little drive, I noticed that Kacey wasn't nearly as pumped up as I was ... in fact, she wore large sunglasses and kept one hand over her face for nearly the entire episode! I was a bit baffled by this. Kacey is fun and she loves her brother! Why wasn't she doing the chicken dance out her window or something equally as attention grabbing???

This morning ... at 3:30 a.m. ... it's all clear to me. There is only one reason that any of us mothers do any of this crazy stuff. BECAUSE WE ARE MOTHERS. You can love any child to pieces, but nothing compares to a mother's love ... and nothing stands in the way of it.

Two hours after the now infamous drive, I sat in the school office with other mothers as we watched our candidates ... the fruit of our loins ... project their previously taped speeches across the airwaves of young, judgmental students and teachers. Never before had I been so proud and downright amazed at the courage of so many kids. Junior High is, in my opinion, the most scary time of life! And here were these confident, bold and beautiful young men and women standing up in front of everyone and in different elements ... performing for their peers. I was completely petrified for them ... and my only role was to sit and watch the television screen!

After this point, it didn't matter who won. Jake didn't. In my eyes, these kids were incredibly brave and powerful for putting themselves out there.

This morning ... at 4:00 a.m. ... it's all clear to me. I'll bet that every one of those kids have awesome mothers. They are being raised with the unconditional love of a mother, which makes them fearless. The power of mothers is strong, and is moving mountains in a very scary world right now. Sure, they probably have great fathers as well ... but today is Mother's Day and today we get the glory.

So today I shout HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to every mother ...
and exclaim Hail to the Chief of every child.