Every year, on the second Sunday of the month of May, I greet all the women that I know, and also in general, "Happy Mother's Day". Or "Congratulations" and "Best Wishes" when learning about the good news of a new baby in the family of my relatives and friends. Though I'm genuinely happy for them, there was still a part of me that would use to ask, "When is it going to be my turn?" or would hope that the day would come that people would greet and congratulate me, too.
Just like about 2 years ago, when I learnt that the last one of my three bridesmaids (who are also my cousins) was going to have a baby, I felt so sorry for myself. As I have already mentioned, I am truly and genuinely happy for all of them, but I can't help but be overcome with feelings of sadness. I got married before them and yet they all got pregnant before me. When my cousin announced her pregnancy on Facebook, I congratulated her, of course, but no one knew that I wept for hours on end. My eyes were like a water tower with holes that could not be sealed no matter what, and so I just had to let it leak out to release the load and hurt somehow.
But, of course, this year is different. I have actually forgotten that it's already the second week of May, and so, Mother's Day was coming up fast and I was completely unaware of the days and dates. As a matter of fact, I didn't even know that it was already Saturday yesterday. I thought it was still Friday. So, when I had surprise visitors yesterday, they gave me a thoughtful present and greeted me "Happy Mother's Day for tomorrow", I was rather quite confused. Then I thought, "That's right, it's Mother's Day this weekend, but it won't be until the next couple of days."
The surprise visitors were from my church. It was one of the seniors at church and the Pastor's wife. If not for lockdown measures and restrictions due to #covid19, I would have wanted to invite them inside my house but they would rather stay on the front porch and then they gave me this gift (see the top photo): a cupcake and a printed card stapled on the gift bag:
This is such a beautiful verse. I am going to save it and put it in a picture frame to remind me of the courage I took just to get to this point of having a baby. I've read that George Clooney once said, "Whatever you do, don't wake up at 65 years old and think about what you should have done with your life." So, I'm glad that my husband and I made a huge decision to seek help from the fertility specialists so that we could have a baby. I don't want to wake up at 65 years old and regret that I didn't look for any answer or solution to our problem while it was not too late. I'm really proud of both my husband and myself for taking a rather big step towards creating a family of our own, however unconventional it might seem to some people.
So, anyway, I thanked my surprise visitors and even left a message on our Facebook group, saying "Thank you very much, Jo and Auntie Karen! Happy Mother's Day to both of you and to all the mums!!! I can't believe I'm going to be a mother soon."
My ELC Director, who is also a member of my church and so she is also part of that group, replied to my greeting and she said, "You are already a mother. You care, nurture, pray, and protect your precious one every day. Your baby is truly blessed!"
Then, today, I also got a present from my mother-in-law: a vase of flowers and a box of Maltesers Truffles. I had already shown this in my previous post, Celebrating Mother's Day, but I'd like to include it again in this post.
I'm super blessed to have such wonderful women and inspirational role-models in my life. May the Lord bless them and their good hearts, and I pray that just like all of them, I will also be a good and loving mother --- someone that will love and care for her children unconditionally and selflessly.
This is a freewrite exercise using @Marianne West 's prompt, "water tower" and @Shadows Pub 's prompts, "frame" and "Quote of the Day: Whatever you do, don't wake up at 65 years old and think about what you should have done with your life."
All photos are my own unless otherwise stated.
by @qurator
by @quochuy of @teamaustralia