Happy Mother's Day

Today is a day set aside for children to celebrate their mother. The tradition was started in 1912 and is observed all over the world. President Woodrow Wilson was the president who made it a law in the United States.

"You're Having My Baby" was a song song by Paul Anka. In the video the music and photo bring back the memories of the days we carried our children, the days of wondering whether our precious baby would be perfect. I had my babies when I was young and close together. I was naive and under the spell of my loving partner. I would have done anything for him and having babies was a part of his fulfillment.

I loved being a young mother, I remember that so well. Unfortunately, nothing comes in beautiful wrappings tied with a simple bow that remains unwrinkled and tied forever. Within a few weeks of the birth of my first baby, he developed problems. I was so dumb, there are no instructions that comes with that beautiful package. No directions for how to tell if you have a reliable physician. As a young adult, my experiences had not given my instincts time to develop. I felt hopeless. We were fortunate to find a pediatrician after several weeks who knew what the problem was - our regular doctor blamed everything except for the real problem Had we not caught the problem when we did, he would have died. Our little tiny baby of nine weeks required surgery. Do you know how awful it is too see a little tiny baby laying in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of so many places of his precious body.

Oddly enough, the same thing happened to my daughter when she was a newborn. Fortunately, this time we were smart enough to know what to do. Our doctor was so surprised this could happen to a girl and the second time in a family - he hesitated and wanted us to send her away to a hospital many miles away. We were so poor and didn't have the money to make the drive to visit. We took her to a local hospital and had the surgery performed successfully.

These are only two situations in our long life that we didn't count on to happen when we decide that we want to bring a new life into the world. We have no clue what could or does happen when we have that very important decision.

There are more stories and anxieties - especially the death of our second son. He was a beautiful son, considerate, loving, thoughtful, wonderful laugh, the ideal son.

There are now grandchildren who add a different aspect to being a parent - a golden opportunity to expand on the love that grew with our own children. Love that came from sacrifices. Love from pride of a stage play of kindergartners. Excitement of the experience of the first child receiving his high school diploma. The ultimate exhilaration watching the birth of a grandchild.

Having a baby equals celebrating Mother's Day.