 Motherhood can be like one long season of Advent. When your kids are newborn, people say, wait till he's two. Then a toddler and they say, just wait till he's a teenager. When they are 16, someone says, wait till they're gone. As a mama, the days are long, but the years are short. Our wait for new life, for new birth, can seem so long in the day of mourning, pain, and oppression. But when we look back at what we have made it through, we can see how we have had moments of joy, stretches of triumph, and experiences of hope. It is that mixture of impossible days and incredible years that can keep us going until the next season.