Angela Braniff - Love Without Borders: How Bold Faith Opens the Door to Embracing the Unexpected

This act of mothering is my worship to Him right now; dying to self and delighting in them. There is failure. Oh yes. It is messy and sloppy sometimes; yet, [there is] forgiveness and grace and growing.

Lovelyn Palm

Picture this: Outside the birds are chirping, the sun is peeking out over the trees in a blaze of orange glory, the smell of freshly brewed coffee permeates your entire house. The kids are happily playing together upstairs, and youre sitting on a plush couch, fuzzy blanket draped across your lap, reading your Bible and praying in peace and quiet.

It sounds beautiful doesnt it?

Well, thats about as far from my reality as you can get (insert the sound of a record scratching here).

If I could invite you into my house for a day, this is what youd witness: I wake up abruptly because Ive just been elbowed in the throat by a toddlerwait, make that two toddlers. As I throw back the covers I discover that those leakproof diapers are not, in fact, leakproof. I remove the sheets and add washing them to my already overflowing to-do list for the day. I can hear the loud, gleeful screams of my two boys running around the playroom. Theyve been up since at least 5:30 a.m., and Im convinced they are a part of some kind of science experiment to test how little sleep a human can actually survive on. I make my way to the kitchen and brew what is destined to be the first of many cups of coffee for the day. And I praya lot!

My husband, CR, is downstairs getting this crazy train moving on out of the station. Last year we both became work-from-home parents, after CR left his corporate career of thirteen years to become a stay-at-home dad. Now, we work together as a team to keep my business and our family of nine functioning. Some days its seamless, and some days its madness.

The next hour or two is a flurry of bottles, diapers, scrambled eggs, more coffee, feeding the pets, loading the dishwasher, brushing teeth, and did I mention more coffee? Its a bit like herding cats to get everyone where they need to be.

The only thing I have left to do is to dress the twins. Theyre twenty months old and its a bit of a rodeo. One minute theyre cackling and laughing while you attempt to fit their squirmy little legs into pants, and the next theyre crying and slapping at you because its been twenty seconds, and they are over it now. Toddlers are natures most fickle creatures, which is why God makes them so freakin cute. He knows they need those big saucer eyes and sweet squeaky voices to survive.

I send one of the younger kids up to third floor to wake up my two oldest daughters. They are twelve and ten years old, and those girls love to sleep! I swear theyd sleep in until noon if I let them.

We homeschool, and so once all the kids are gathered together, we start the morning with some worship music and pray together, while the kids draw or paint in their Bible journals. Then we get started on the rest of our schoolwork. On a successful day, you might find Kennedy, my oldest daughter, doing her math on the computer, and CR at the kitchen table role-playing social stories with Rosie, our seven-year-old daughter, who has Down syndrome. In the study room Shelby, our ten-year-old daughter, would be devouring a new book series, and Jonah, our five-year-old son, might be with me in the schoolroom doing his alphabet flash cards. A quick peek around the corner and youd find the twins are corralled in the living room riding around on their little scooters, and Noah, our seven-year-old, is practicing handwriting at the coffee table.

On another day, you may find all hell has broken loose: the twins are wearing only diapers, the kids are watching an animal documentary so we can call it school, Im up to my elbows in work to get done, and CRs shampooing carpets because, well, we have seven kids, two dogs, three cats, and something is always dirty. I like to think of these as spice up your life kind of days. Those crazy days when it seems the wheels have come off: we call those spicy days!

We wrap up our schoolwork before lunchtime, because afternoon is when my workday begins. I make videos on YouTube and write a blog, which has given me so much fulfillment and allowed me to share my passions with an incredible community online. My work has opened doors to opportunities I never knew would be possible, such as working with the brand that wants to partner with me to throw a moms night out event for local foster moms who need to get a break and just be loved on. Im humbled and amazed that I get to do this for a living!

When its a filming day, I need to pull myself together a bit. Most days that means I apply fifty pounds of dry shampoo, a full-coverage concealer, and what I like to refer to as my mullet outfit. You know how they say a mullet haircut is business in the front and party in the back? Yeah, thats my outfit. A cute shirt and earrings on the top and old ratty sweatpants on the bottom. I set up my lighting, make sure I have all my notes for the video, and gather the products I need. Im ready to roll.

No sooner do I hit the record button than I hear crying coming from downstairs. I know CR is down there with the kids, but sometimes Mama just needs to make sure everything is okay. I run downstairs to do a quick well check and find the twins both in full meltdown mode. They are in the worst stage of toddlerhood right now: the biting stage. Neither twin has enough of a vocabulary to effectively communicate with each other, so when one of them takes a toy, the other retaliates by biting. I consider myself pretty well versed in parenting toddlers at this point, but having twins has ushered in a whole wave of issues that are totally new to me, and their constantly biting each other is definitely one of them. CR and I each grab a baby and attempt to comfort them. Luckily at this age, they are quick to forgive, and they are back to playing together in no time.

I rush back upstairs, but Im already behind schedule. I hop onto another call to discuss the itinerary for a trip Im taking to Uganda in a few weeks. This particular organization is working to empower vulnerable women in their local community by setting them up with dignified work and helping them to send their kids to school. The organization asked me to come to Uganda to see firsthand the work being done and the lives being changed; then I will share what Ive seen with my amazing online community. When the call is over, its time to sit back down in front of the camera and attempt to film again. Before I even get settled, I hear Rosies little voice, Hi, Mom! Whatcha doing?

Rosie always seems to know when Im filming something, and she loves to be on camera. She usually decides this is a great time for her daily chat. She asks me fifty questions about everything from my nail polish color to the lighting setup. She knows most of the answers already, since filming is a regular occurrence in our home, but I appease her and answer all her questions again. Im just happy to hear her speaking in full sentences and using words in the proper context. She was almost five years old when we adopted her from China, and we had no idea how long it would take her to learn English. Down syndrome was totally new to us and we tried to have very few expectations of her.

Its now been three years since she came home, and Im sitting here listening to her monologue about her brothers fighting downstairs and how Ivy fell down; Rosie wraps it up by asking me for a snack. I may have one hundred little things on my to-do list for that day, but Ill never grow tired of basking in utter gratitude for how far this girl has come and how shes changed my life forever. But, alas, theres still work to do. I usher her downstairs to grab a quick snack and then head back up to