mother love

"Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible."
  ~Marion C. Garretty, quoted in A Little Spoonful of Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul

I love mother's day.   I love the breakfast in bed that is delivered with such care and excitement.  

I love homemade paper cards, the sprouting plants they planted, the painted hand-prints and flowers.  I love those sweet smiles and big hugs from my all of little people.  

Mother's day means I am thinking of all the many mothers in my life with gratitude.... with love.  


First my own mother.....her sweet unconditional love.  How she has always supported my dreams, embraced who I am just as I am.  How she has shown me how to love big.


I think of my grandmothers, great-grandmothers....the ones I knew, and the ones I never knew.   I think of their lives, their choices, and how it all led to my life.  


I send my love to the aunts, cousins, friends, sisters....women in my life who are each amazing examples of a mother's love.   I have taken bits of wisdom from each of them.


I feel the love and gratitude I have for Tessa's first mother and the life she brought into the world.  I feel the love I know she carries for this beautiful child we share, whom I am blessed to love. 


I am amazed by these little souls, my children, who bestowed motherhood upon me.  how I love them so much it almost hurts.  how I love them with all of my being.  how I want to protect them from this world and yet teach them about it.   how I desire to keep them close and yet let them grow away from me to be who they are destined to be.   


On mother's day and every day, I an ever certain that raising these children is my purpose in this life, it is my greatest journey, challenge and  mission of love....what I am and will always be most proud of.


And a favorite photo as a mother for this year because I can see in my eyes how much I am wanting Tessa to feel my love, how much I love her and how deeply I needed to connect with her in this past year.   That is what much of this past years journey was about for me emotionally...and here I see it.