Thoughts on Mother's Day

So I have been trying to decide what to write about my thoughts on Mother's Day. Do I think Hallmark has made a killing on us honoring Moms this one day a year and we should just spread out the love all year long? Sure I do. Do I realize how incredibly hard and depressing this day can be for some women..absolutely. I grew up in a very rural church where on Mother's Day they would have all the mothers stand to be honored. I learned to hate that tradition as the years went by and I never got to stand. I was 36 when I married and had long stopped attending that church and luckily the bigger churches I started going to realized what a painful tradition that could be. I know now that there were women in my church who had lost children, never been able to conceive or never married who also felt the kick in the gut when others were standing receiving their rose.
After I got married I thought church on Mother's Day would now be better. I could spend time with my own mom and dream of the day it would be a shared event for us. That first Mother's Day I was on my honeymoon. I called home from Spain and wished her a Happy Mother's Day and went on enjoying myself thinking there would be many more to come. Unfortunately my mom passed away very suddenly a couple of months later and so the next two Mother's Days were very painful. If I remember correctly we didn't go to church on either of those years (2003 & 2004) and instead just treated it like any other day. In 2005 we had been logged in to China for a little over 3 months and at that time it meant we were halfway to our referral so we celebrated because I finally felt like a Mom! I knew our daughter had been born and we would hold her very soon.
Last year I celebrated my first Mother's Day with Annslee and it helped erased all the painful and disappointing years before. It truly was a wonderful day as was this year and I am sure all the years to come. Being someone's Mama is the most precious gift and I cherish it. I also have a wonderful Mother-in Law and she treats me as her daughter so I am blessed beyond measure for that. I am sad that my mom never got to meet Annslee because they would have been big buddies!
I do know there are many women who are still waiting for it to be a day to celebrate and I hope that day comes soon for all of you!

Here are some more pics from our weekend together!


On Friday night the three of us went to a Thai restaurant that GiGi told us about. Thai is my favorite food so for a Pre-Mother's Day treat we headed out. Of course there was no children's menu but I didn't want a huge dish for Annslee so I asked about making her a child's portion of noodles but was told they didn't do that. However, once they saw Annslee she came out and said "Oh, she is so cute..I will make her whatever she wants" Hmmm...I think we were just given some preferential treatment and I probably should feel bad about it but hey, I needed some noodles LOL
As you can see she dug right in and was also stealing baby corn off daddy's plate. Our server commented that usually she would rubberband the chopsticks for the little ones but didn't need to for Annslee because she was so good with them. She can pick most things up (corn, rice, noodles) and she is equally skilled with her left or right hand which means you never know whose plate she is headed for next. The funniest thing is sometimes she twirls her noodles around them Italian style ; )

Like I said my mother-in-law is wonderful and she and Annslee had a great time all weekend

Walking the dogs was one of our favorite things to do

When the cousins arrived the bubbles came out!

We can't wait to go back....