Being a mom . . .

Last Saturday we had a baby shower for my daughter-in-law.  She's having her second baby girl, but we didn't get to have a shower for her first one, so it was fun and exciting to have one this time.  I'm so glad she felt up to the trip from Utah; she's just 6 weeks away from delivery.  We had an enjoyable luncheon and a fun time comparing baby notes and oooo-ing and aaahhhh-ing overt the pretty pink baby things.  As I looked around the room full of women, I was struck by the realization that we are all bound together in this life-giving-circle of love.  I also was remembering that many of these wonderful women were at a baby shower for me just a glance-back ago.  I was as big as a house, uncertain about the whole parenthood thing, and realized with every gift I opened that this step was more and more inevitable.  No turning back.  I was going to be a mother.  One of the sayings we had for decoration at the shower was:

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new."  --Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh


When I read that statement, I realized how true that was.  That baby forever changed my identity.  I became a mother.  My mom once told me, "Once you're a mother, you're always a mother.  Even after they grow up and become parents, you're still their mother."  Yep, there's no escaping it . . . but oh, how I have loved being a mother of five amazing children.  Each one different, yet each one the same.  Each one bringing a different joy, and each one bringing a special relationship for me.

Now I'm not only a mother (and grandmother), but a mother-in-law, and I'm finding that those dear, sweet daughters-in-law have found a place in my heart as well.  The more I'm around those wonderful women, the more I am grateful my sons found them.  As the crowd left and they visited in the kitchen together and then later with me as well, they were truly part of my family.  I am now the mother of seven.