It is funny to me how we view life so differently in different stages of said life, in the top left picture is my Mom and I , our first picture together, I am sure at that point I was just trying to figure out the world outside of her womb. As I grew my life perspective grew too, until one day I reached the pinnacle of adulthood, the time in life where I thought I knew it all and better than my parents, especially my Mom who raised us most of my younger years as my Dad was full time Army and lived away from us most of his 24 years. Dad retired but worked as a nurse in the ER at our local hospital when he first retired, left nursing and went to be a lead maintenance man at out local hotel from there to college and then graduated in his forties with a bachelor degree in Computer programming by this point I had graduated high school and was preparing to go to college myself. I say all this about Dad to understand that my Mom basically raised my sister and I, even after Dad retired and moved back to live with his family, I would still refer to Mom on our do’s and don’ts.
It took me becoming a Mom myself to truly understand the sacrifice my Mom made for us and for being a Army wife, it meant a lot of time living apart and playing the role of Mom and Dad, I didn’t appreciate her sacrifice or what she gave up, at least not until her death. You see my Mom took on being a Army wife with a husband who served most of his time living away from his family, a special needs child(my sister) that required so much of her and her aging mother all under the same roof.
I graduated in 1984 and in 1986 I became a mother myself to a beautiful baby girl, she was born with health issues and went from the hospital she was born in to the children’s hospital, in and out of said hospital for many years of operations to repair her cleft palette and hair lip, she learned to walk and turned 1 years old in the children’s hospital when she was 3 years old Sarah contacted spinal meningitis and we lived there for almost 2 months, this is where she gained the nickname of “Wild Child” , when she was finally recovering she would run the full extent of her IV causing me to run behind her to catch up so as not to pull her IV out, this was a sure sign she was feeling much better.
Sarah’s last surgery was her senior year in high school, she had the very same nurse that she had when she was on the toddler unit, Nurse Kathy and Sarah had come full circle and little did we know that she would later work for said children’s hospital. Truth is Sarah and I both grew up together me as a young Mom and her as a child, we both experienced highs and lows , good stuff and the bad together. I raised her myself until her dad and I married in 1991 a few more years went by , she headed off to college where she learned about a group called Dance Marathon that raised money for the local children’s hospital, the very same one she was in and out of, learned to walk and talk in, she had found her passion!
Sarah now works as a paid employee doing what see loves and over sees the teams who over see the dance marathon’s for colleges and high schools in Indiana, she lives and works her passion every single day. To say her dad and I are proud of her is an understatement, she is an incredible woman and this stage in life I also call her friend! now days motherhood consist of my friendship with our daughter and I am now Mamma to the sweet fur baby in the picture who is 8 months old at the time of the picture above and this post. I am realizing just how much fur babies are like toddlers and I am loving every minute of it, we also have a wonderful 5 year old grand dog named Whatley, our first fur baby we fell in love with!
So you see motherhood has it’s many ups and downs, stages of change but I wouldn’t trade a single moment except to say I would turn back the clock to have more time with my own mom to resolve our differences and let her know how much I really appreciate her sacrifices she made for us. Happy heavenly Mother’s Day Mom you are loved and missed every single day.
Saved To Serve A God Styled Life,
Maggie P
God-Styled Life with Maggie P 