I am a Momma...

I am a Momma, by various different ways.

My oldest daughter, Mackenzie, was born a month and twenty-four days after my 18th birthday.  I think that Mack in many ways saved my life.  I could have been headed down a pretty rough path.  I always had a pretty good head on my shoulders, but having her made me grow up.  I had someone who depended on me.  I needed to work, I needed to go to school, I needed to provide.  In addition to those things, I loved her so much.  More then anything, ever.

We had some pretty lean times, but we were close, and I worked extremely hard to be not just a good mom to her, but an exceptional one to her.  I knew that most people would expect for me to fail as a mom, when I was so young having her, and I needed to prove them wrong.  She is almost nineteen.  She is a freshman in college.  Mack is one of my best friends.  She is funny, intelligent, very down to earth, and just an exceptional young woman.  I couldn't be more proud to be her Momma. 

When I was twenty-five, I met my husband.  We got married when I was 26, and he was 41.  He had three daughters.  So I am a step-momma too.  This was the most difficult parenting a Momma could do.  The girls were 14, 15, and 16 when we met.  There is less of an age difference between me and any of the girls then there is between their father and I.  I think under the best of circumstances it's hard to be a step parent, but stepping in and being a step-mom to 3 teenage girls is very hard.  There were rough times, the first five years especially.  When they started having their own babies, and I became the Nana to those babies, it started getting better.  When they realized that I was just a woman too, it became better.  They just had to grow up a bit to appreciate me more.  We all love each other now.  So much.  I think that because it took so much work to get us all to this place of friendship, of understanding, of loving each other, it makes our relationship all the better, and that much more special. 

I was a Foster Momma.  After my husband and I had been married for about five years, we decided to take the leap and adopt.  We knew other people who had adopted from foster care, and since due to my husband's age and a 24 year old vasectomy we decided that this was the best option for us.  We applied, went through the classes and were approved.  Then we waited.  And waited.  We had many calls for foster placements, we were kind of waiting for an adoption placement, then a worker told us, if we took a foster placement, that may help us.  We took our first foster placement on October 31, 2006.  

It was an experience.  The boy we had was sweet, but has many issues, he was six.  I can't go into the particulars, but this also made me a better, wiser, more patient Momma.  All the way around.  It made me think outside of the box.  It made me look at things from different perspectives.  It was one of the best, and one of the hardest six months of my life.  He went home on April 20, 2007.

In June of 2007, we got the call.  An adoption placement of a twelve month old baby girl.  The judge wanted the worker to find a family for the girl before the TPR hearing, on July 20, 2007.  They lived about two hours away, we went and visited our daughter the weekend after we received the call.  We met her foster mother, who she had been placed with since she was ten days old.  Our daughter was offered to her foster mother first, but she felt that she deserved a younger, two parent family.  Her husband had passed away the previous year, and she was older.  We love her.  She and her children are a part of our family.  We stay connected on Facebook, so she can see pictures of our daughter, and she and her oldest daughter come and visit, when they are in town.

A few weeks after we visited them, they drove down to come visit us.  We showed Mea her room, her toys, introduced her to our dog, and cats, as much as a thirteen month old can, she seemed at home.  The TPR hearing occurred, and our daughter came home two days later, July 22, 2007.  Much crying, hugs and kisses from her foster mom, and from me.  On February 5, 2008, she officially became our daughter.

I love my Mea.  She is almost five.  She is vivacious.  She is a character, and silly, and smart, and I could go on and on and on.  Although there is a serious age difference between Mea and the rest of her sisters, they all dote on her, and love her so much.  Mea has two nieces who are older then she is, and they are best of friends.

It is much different parenting this time around.  It's nice to have a Dad for one thing.  It's nice to have a bit more stability, and it's also nice to have the experience I had from having Mack, and from the big girls, and from parenting D for those six months.

I love being Momma to these five girls.  I loved the six months of being Momma to D.

I just love being a Mom, anyway I can.