Being a mom means more than having given birth to a child. It’s loving and knowing a soul before you even see it. It’s carrying, and caring for a life completely dependent on you for survival. It’s giving air to the lungs that grew with-in you, and sight to the eyes that will never see you as anything but mommy. It’s having a child placed in your arms following a selfless act of another woman who chose you to be this child’s mother instead of herself. It’s blending your families and adding one more, two more, or even many more children to your heart and life. It’s choosing and wanting to come last, eat last, lose sleep and worry for all the days of your life, and no desire to have it any other way.
It’s nursing scratches and scrapes, it’s being stern and protective. It’s teaching them to talk, to walk and to eventually run. It’s learning to hand your child to a stranger to let them teach what you cannot at times. It’s bracing them for a fall, and dusting them off after they do. It’s seeing them cry, and not knowing how to fix it, so you sit on the floor and hold them and cry right along beside them. It’s teaching them that they are smart, capable and funny and giving them the security to do great things. It’s building their self-esteem, supporting their dreams and loving them unconditionally. It’s letting them go, letting them fail, and teaching them how to get back up. It’s going without, so that they don’t have to, and being okay with it.
Being a Mother is a gift that is unimaginable to any woman who does not have a child in their life. It’s a connection that is unmatched and insurmountable in any form or other relationship. It’s a love that grows continually, a love that always wants more and better. It’s being terrified that you can’t prevent pain, injustice, heartbreak, and at times even death.
It’s listening to ongoing drama from your teenage daughter about who likes who, and why the world is going to end because of some pivotal moment in middle school. It’s homemade gifts from your sons that mean more than any store bought item. It’s baseball practice, football games, and basketball tournaments. It’s cheer practice and school dances and giving into a little mascara and lip gloss – then eventually having to search your daughter’s room for all your makeup and clothes.
It’s laughing at jokes that aren’t funny, but the way they say it, makes its hilarious. It’s listening to stories, that go on and on without a point. It’s always being available for the “mommy watch ME’s” and “mommy I need you”. It’s drowning out the word MOM repeated over and over, in attempts to get your attention. It’s songs sang out of tune, and settling squabbles with siblings. It’s being mean, and teaching hard lessons, that hurt you inside so deep you want to cry, but you must stand strong with resolve. It’s being strong for them, when you are weak. It’s smiling when you want to cry, and crying when you’re smiling with pride.
It’s looking through photographs and feeling your heart swell with love and happiness when you see the beauty, the happiness and life in your child’s smile and eyes. It’s confusion, mistakes, uncharted territory and blind folded guessing. It’s snuggling on the couch watching a movie and braiding hair till your fingers hurt. It’s being woken up early on Saturday morning because they want to crawl in bed and be close to your heart. It’s having the worst day, and having them hug you and tell you ”mommy I love you”, and needing nothing more.
It’s an ongoing lesson for us in the moments we teach, we learn from our children as well. We remember to have fun, to be silly and to not take life so seriously. Being a mom is a relationship and love that never dies even if our children do. It’s the choice to choose to allow our heart to live outside our chest and run wild with our children. Being a mom is the best thing I have ever become, the greatest love I have ever felt and the best part about being me.
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