Mother's Day

First I'd like to say Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and mothers-to-be out there, reading this. Mother's Day is a lovely day to honor our first friends, the beautiful, talented, caring, sharing women who raised us.

There is a saying "It takes a village to raise a child." In my opinion, supported by this quote and common sense, there are many mothers in each of our "villages" and we should take the opportunity today to honor all of them.

Today, I honor my mother, my best friend from 6th grade on's mother, my best friend from AL's mother, and my mom's best friend. They were all instrumental in shaping me into the woman and mother I am today and I thank God for their presences in my life. As usual, God knew what he was doing.

Today, I am a mother because God, in his infinite wisdom, chose to bless me with 4 beautiful daughters. Words cannot express how much I love them and how much they have helped me grow and helped to shape me into the woman and mother I am and the one I will someday be. I thank God for entrusting me with them and I ask Him to help me every step along the way. I know He will.

I also want to thank the members of my DDC, all mothers who walked through my pregnancy and Rory's birth with me. They have supported me from 2 pink lines through Joey leaving for basic and then leaving for "greener pastures." When I can't talk to anyone else, they are always there, never judgmental, just supporting me and loving me "and the greatest of these is love."

My Mother's Day gift to myself is honesty and patience. This is a difficult day for me because I am reminded of my failing. In my eyes, my first gift to my children was a bad father and that grieves me.

This is not an easy holiday for a single mom, that's for sure. Its probably right up there with Valentine's Day. You are surrounded by happy families and its just a constant reminder of what you no longer have and it hurts. Today, I am being patient with myself and allowing myself to work through this pain. It probably won't be a fun day. But I hope and pray to grow through it. And I thank God for one more day to spend with my children.

Happy Mother's Day :)