This year is my second mother’s day o.O at least my second as a Mum, we’re not going to say how many it is I’ve been a daughter ^^
My mother’s day started with being woken up at 6 a.m. and not getting to go back to sleep because the munchkin didn’t want to stay in his crib. I stumble out into the kitchen with him to find hubbie was there trying to make a drink for him in the hopes he would stay quiet and not wake me up. :aawwwww. When I appear he looks over at me and sheepishly says, “Happy Mother’s Day!” to which I replied: “nrrghhl”

I spent yesterday with my Mum and Dad. Mum actually drove down and picked the munchkin and myself up because hubbie was on duty and would need the car. I’m grateful that she thinks of us so much still.
She’s covering the costs of my citizenship applications; and even going to pick me up and drive me down into Orlando to get the fingerprinting done. It’s very cool of her.
But then she’s always been pretty damn cool. I know there are times growing up I didn’t think so. She frustrated me because she wouldn’t let me do this, or that. Especially in high school we had one or two arguments because I couldn’t get name brand things, but it didn’t take long for her to teach me that it was more important for me to actually have shoes and clothes than for them to have some kind of sticker on. Really I didn’t want those things anyway, it was one of those peer pressure things. My personal style has never really extended to anything with a huge amount of pattern or logo, but I was being bullied.
Once Mum found that out she went to sort it out she’s an amazing person; and she’s very strong. I don’t know if she’s really realized that herself until recently.
By the time I was three, she’d been widowed and divorced; because she was raising me by herself she sacrificed a lot, she sacrificed her freedom and personal space moving us in with her parents so that we would be sure and be able to afford a place to live and she would have people to help look after me while she was at work. The judge in our home country ruled that because she was young that she could go to work so she only got child support, not spousal support. So, she went back to work; she got me into school, and she worked only part time until I got to high school so that she would be around for me, and then once I got into high school she went to work full time and we moved out of my grandparents.

Until I was in high school also she didn’t date; and when she did it turned out that the person she dated was the one who wound up being my Step-Dad, my Dad who I refer to.
She said she didn’t want to negatively impact me if not only she, but I, too, got attached to these men and then they left because they couldn’t deal with a child, or it turned out she and they weren’t compatible. She also said if I hadn’t wanted to emigrate she wouldn’t have. She would have left a man she cared about deeply if I had been even the slightest bit opposed.
She taught me great values, and I’ve always felt that I could talk to her about anything.

I wrote on her card this year, that ‘every day with [my son] I realize more and more how MUCH she did for me, and appreciate it more and more.’ Deep down I’ve always been grateful to her for how much she did, but you really see a whole other side of how much your parents did for you when you are a parent.

I constantly say, and truly believe, if I can even do half as well with my son he will be in good shape. I have a great mother to live up to.