Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there in the real world! Hope you have THE most wonderful day! You deserve it!

I've been thinking about the first time my husband referred to me as the mother of his children.

I've been thinking about how much it hurts that I've never had children of my own. This is something that begins to nag at me and hurt whenever my husband asks me what I want for Mother's Day. I always thought having babies would be a part of my life. I always assumed I'd have at least a few. But things didn't work out that way. My husband has two, from his first marriage, and he didn't want more. He wanted, instead, to spend the rest of his life with me. He wanted us to retire young, enjoy life together, and not have to work for the rest of our lives and die working. It was a hard decision for me to make, in some ways - should I have waited to possibly meet someone who might want to have babies? No, I decided that I loved this man, and I wanted to spend my life with him, even if I wasn't going to have babies of my own. And I don't regret that decision. But it wasn't an easy one, and just because I'm okay with it doesn't mean I don't miss that part of my life I thought would be there. Mother's Day is hard for me. I cry. I cry for the children I don't have, for the children I'll never have. But then I get a Mother's Day card from my daughter, and she tells me she loves me, and my husband gets me the most beautiful Mother's Day card he can find and he tells me he loves me and that his children are lucky to have me for their mother - and all's right in my world!

And I remember each year that there's someone in my life, someone who means so very much to me, who has never wished me a Happy Mother's Day. I think she just doesn't consider me to be a mom 'cause I ain't birthed no babies myself. But you know what? She's wrong. I'm a mom. I'm a darned good mom. I have loved and sacrificed and cared and worried, just like a "real" mom. And I hope she knows who she is. 'Cause it hurts when she ignores this day that means so much to me.

I've been thinking, too, about my mom. I just want to take a moment to pay tribute to her - she is probably one of the strongest women I've ever met. She has a heart of gold. She's strong-willed, she's opinionated, she's kind, she's thoughtful, she's generous. She's taught me that I can do or be whatever I want to do or be, that I'm capable of anything and everything. She has loved me, without exception, every day of my life.

If I can be 1/2 the mom she's been to me, then I'll have outshown every other mom on this earth but her!!!