Mother's Day

     Today is Mother's Day.  This is the seventh Mother's Day I have had the blessing to celebrate.  Every year, for the past seven years, on this day I try to take a moment and reflect on motherhood.  Think about my gratitude, my children, growth, change, and love.  This year is no exception.
     This year I have an overwhelming surge of gratefulness to my children. It occurred to me this morning,  that I am who I am today because of these kids. They have been the main push on a daily basis to get me to WANT to be a better person. They have been my inspiration, my strength, and my support. They are my drive. I want to be the very best me I can be, so I can be the best Mom I can be for them. They have each taught me so many lessons on patience, sympathy, empathy, surrender, excitement, chaos, compassion, and love. Every day, I learn something about myself because of them.  I cannot help but think how lucky I am that God chose me to be their Mom.
     I also started thinking about my Mom this Mother's Day.  I began to further understand how she too must have felt these similar emotions towards me and my brother in her life. One of the greatest lessons she taught me was the unconditional love a mother possesses towards her children.  She loves us. She loves us FIERCELY and COMPLETELY.  She loves us all the way, every bit of us... even the parts that she may wish she could change or take away... she loves those too because she knows that even those parts make us who we are.  I understand this now, because this is how I feel about my children too.
    As I reflected on my Mom, I also thought about BBH's Mother too.  I felt a wash of gratitude for her for bringing him into my life.  She raised him to be the amazing husband and father that he is, and for that I will be eternally grateful.
     Grandmother's too. I thought about my Grandma. How special she is to me.  How she has taught me strength. How she has blossomed in a time when many women would wither.  My other Grandma, and how much I miss her.  How I wish she could have met my children, but how much her influence still flows in this family.  My children's grandmothers.  My Mom and my Mother in Law have got to be the two BEST Grandmas (GeeGee and Nana respectively) on the planet, and how lucky my kids are to have them both in their lives.
    What a beautiful and precious gift this Motherhood. What a blessing and a teacher it is. It is absolutely, unequivocally, and unquestionably the MOST important thing I will EVER do. It is, without a doubt, the BEST thing I have ever done, and I hope to always be grateful for the amazing women who came before me to show me the way.

Happy Mother's Day.