What makes a mom happy when life is chaotic or when everything seems to be going wrong?

A good friend of mine, April, has started a website called "The Power of Moms" (www.powerofmoms.com), which is "...an online community of mothers dedicated to
inspiring, empowering, and uniting each other." There is a section on it called "Perspectives" and I recently added this comment that I'd like to share in my blog. It was an answer/comment to this question..."What makes a mom happy when life is chaotic or when everything seems to be going wrong?"

I am a mother of four, pregnant with our fifth who is only about five weeks away from joining our family. I thought that life these past few months had been hard and a struggle to just be a pregnant mother of four. Only a week ago did we find out that our athletic 6 ½ year-old son has a rare bone disease that could effect his physical abilities in the next 3-4 years. Little did I know that life could become more hard and more of a struggle. After being in shock and denial for the first few days, I’ve come to realize that never have I had so many moments of reflection where I noticed how beautiful all my children are, how much I love them, how blessed I am to be their mother, and that I just cherish everything about them. I’ve taken more time to sit down and read to them, grab the camera and take a quick snapshot of something cute, tell them I love them, and stop what I’m doing at the moment to really focus on listening to what they have to say about their day. I’ve felt like I’ve had more patience, like there was more love in the home. I’m thankful for that, thankful for the trials that are given to us that help us to be better people. Sometimes it takes something that may seem horrible to have this awakening of how blessed we really are to be mothers. I think that when life does seem to be going wrong, it’s easier to see how life has been wonderful up to that point and really how wonderful it still is. I remember reading in a book of scripture, “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things.” If there weren’t, we wouldn’t enjoy the wonderful times that we do have. I am just so happy to be a mother, no matter the trials and struggles that life sends our way. I know we can grow through these trials and become better and stronger for it.