This Journey Called Motherhood

              

1985 – Steve         and       1989 – Becca

      Motherhood is a strange journey for most of us.  We spend all of our youth playing house, caring for baby dolls and dreaming of getting married and having our own kids.

      Then the next thing you know, you’re married and all your dreams are coming true….. or at least you’d like to believe they are.   You realize you’re a little late and panic.   You somehow or another calm yourself down and decide that you might in fact like the idea of being a mother so you head to the doctor to find out if the rabbit will die or not.  It does and so you begin that life long journey called “Motherhood”. 

      In reality, you begin to look like a whale, your hormones are going crazy and you’ll cry about a stupid commercial for an hour.   God forbid that you should watch a good “chic” flick – you’ll have puffy eyes and a stuffy nose for months.   Your ankles swell to the size of basketballs, you can’t see your feet, you’re swaybacked from a much enlarged front side of your body and you waddle like a duck.  Other than that, pregnancy is a great thing. 

       And then after all the anxiety, mood swings, pain, joy, laughter, cursing and pushing comes the moment you’ve waited your whole life for …… the moment when you first look into that beautiful little face, hold them in your arms and know that it was all worth it.

        

   1985 – Steve                    1989 – Becca

      Being a mother means unconditional love sprinkled with discipline, guidance, patience, wonder, worry, pride, anger,  fear, happiness, sadness, expectancy, disappointment and many emotions yet to be felt.  

      The love that I have for all my children (including the one that I didn’t give birth to) will never change.  I can only envision it getting stronger as my life goes on.  I thank God each day for the joy of having them in my life.

I live with a bunch of comedians!

For mother's day this year, the kids came over and we had a cookout.  April, Steve, his wife Jennifer, Becca and her boyfriend Shane and Bobby and I were all there.  The only one missing was my Granddaughter, Ashley.  We had a wonderful time and I really enjoyed getting to be with all of them.

Whenever we get together for family events, I try to take a group photograph before everyone heads home.  Well, this night was no different.....  after taking several shots, and finally getting all the puppies in the picture, I decided to take one more just for good measure.

Seems like the kids had another idea in mind..... they decided to jump out of the picture, leaving just Jennifer and Shane with Bobby and I.   Well.....  I got the last laugh!  They had forgotten that I have a wide-angle lense on my camera.  You can see the results! 

What a bunch of comedians!  At least life is never dull with them!

Meet the Family - April

April’s mother, Joy was Bobby’s first wife and was also a friend of mine. When she and Bobby started dating, she came into our circle of friends instead of Bobby leaving, so we all became friends.

During her pregnancy with April, Joy was diagnosed with toxemia, which is also known as preeclampsia or pregnancy induced high blood pressure. It causes you to retain water and lots of other nasty symptoms. It can cause major complications if not treated. Joy was advised to drink lots of water, not to eat salt and to stay away from junk foods. Unfortunately, she didn’t heed what the doctor said and constantly ate junk foods, especially frozen pizzas.

Bobby, Joy, Bobby’s sister Anita, her boyfriend and several other people went to Daytona for the 4th of July. Joy was about 6 months along and her doctor advised her that she should not go but she went anyway. While there she started to retain fluids and by the time they got home, she was very sick. The doctor put her into the hospital saying that she needed to deliver the baby or she would die.

Bobby and Joy were told that if Joy delivered naturally, then her body would expel most of the toxins she had built up but they gave the baby very little chance of surviving. If Joy had to have a cesarean section, then there was a possibility that Joy and the baby would not make it. Joy was induced to try and make her deliver the baby naturally, but it began to put too much of a strain on her and the baby and so they decided that the doctor would perform a cesarean. Because of this, there was very little strain put on April and she managed to survive against the odds.

April was 1 lb. and 11 ounces when she was born and breathed on her own from the beginning. All they did was give her a little oxygen. She lost a little weight but then started to gradually gain weight daily. April was the first baby to ever come home from Northside Hospital before she weighed 5 lbs. She weighed about 4 and a half pounds, but had been healthy from the day she was born so they decided that there was no need to keep her.

April was so small that she would fit in the palm of Bobby’s hand and her head could go all the way into a small styrofoam coffee cup. Due to the fact that she missed her last 3 months of development in the womb, she was a little slow learning to walk, talk and to learn some of the other skills that come naturally, but other than that, she had no problems.

Today she is a happy healthy adult with a daughter of her own.

Meet the Family - The Kids

Bobby and I have 3 kids, April (who is by Bobby’s first marriage, but she’s always been my first child – even before Bobby and I married), Steve and Becca. Our children are not exceptional except for the fact that they are beautiful, smart and well-rounded.

They were taught from an early age to respect other people’s property – the first rule at our house was “if it’s not yours – DON’T Touch It!! They grew up knowing that if they disrespected their teachers, anyone from church, their grandparents or just about anyone else, then the punishment would be severe.

They knew that if they were sent to the office for being bad that they had better go ahead and call for an ambulance and family and children’s services because they were going to need them by the time I got through with them.

They were taught to say “yes ma’m and no ma’m, yes sir and no sir”, to open doors for others, to say thank you when someone did something for them, to respect figures of authority, to honor the flag and to be kind to others who were less fortunate than they were.

I am very proud to say that my children are not axe murderers or thieves, they aren’t members of gangs, they don’t do drugs, and don’t live off of the government. They are just good well-rounded American kids. I'm not saying that they are perfect, because by no means are they even close to perfect, but I couldn’t be prouder of any of them.

They’re all adults now and letting them go was a really hard thing to do because they will always be my babies. Sometimes I can’t quiet let go, but it’s getting better and a little easier as time goes by. Most of the time I enjoy the empty nest, but sometimes it gets really lonely and I want my babies back, then I get over it.

I seem to have trained them well and so far so good..... Just remember to give your babies lots of hugs and kisses because before you know it, they get to "big" for them. Either that or teach them that they will never get to old to mind their mama (which includes giving hugs and kisses) or their mama will take them down a notch or two!

"Train up a child in the ways he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it" (Proverbs 22:6).