The MOPS story

I am beginning my first year as the coordinator of Grace Avenue MOPS group, and my fifth year in MOPS.  I have been married to Russell for 6 years.  We have a 4 year old little girl named Kinley and a 15 month old little girl named Bailey and another due at the end of March!  Russell and I moved to Frisco almost four years ago from the great little West Texas town of Midland. We were High School sweet hearts who couldn’t wait to finish college so we could finally live our life together.   

After Kinley, I had full intentions of going back to work and the last week left of maternity leave my heart did a huge twist! I decided my role as a new mom was where my heart was pulling me so I chose to leave my career and become a stay at home mom.   

I soon learned that with all of the rewards also came the fears and struggles and the need to connect with other moms with young children.  My dear friend, Kirsten invited me to visit our local MOPS group.  At first, I was just so excited to find an activity I could be a part of, but now the meaning of the group has grown to include the friendships, support, fun, leadership opportunities and spiritual growth that MOPS has provided to me.  I hope this will bring you the same joys of connection and understanding that MOPS has given to me. 

Last year we learned together about ourselves as we went through the adventures of motherhood.  We celebrated and embraced the fun in the experiences, even in the midst of daily mom life that stretched us emotionally and spiritually.  The theme for last year “Adventures in Mothering” with the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of the amusement park, motherhood felt like a sensory overload. But, the main underlying reason for the theme was to allow us to focus on how God is with us in our mothering adventure.  The knowledge that God is with us on the mothering adventure gives hope and that God’s love is big enough for the magnitude of the adventure!

This year’s theme is “Momology the Art and Science of Motherhood”.  Mothering is both art and science.  There’s the scientific side of mothering where we develop a hypothesis based on certain principles, test and keep refining our hypotheses until we find what works for us. Intertwined with the scientific, mothering requires an artistry that shades with our personality, colors with our unique gifts, and blends past and current experiences. The Theme passage for this year is “Even there your hand will guide me your right hand will hold me fast” Psalm 139:10.  Anywhere we go, God sees, knows, and guides. So we can lead — and love — knowing God will get us through all the hard spots, all our decisions, all our roles, all our times we can’t hold open our eyelids and the times we’re bursting with joy. God’s hand guides us as we guide our children. As we study Momology together to become better moms making a better world. I hope this MOPS year we can learn together how to “experiment” the “Art” of mothering so that what begins in MOPS will serve you as you go out into the world.  Here is our 2010-2011 Steering team!! ENJOY!