Motherhood

I have to interrupt my 2015 catch up with an important announcement...

Mother's Day is in a couple of days and I know I posted a little blip on my thoughts about motherhood, via a post about my friend Megan and how we met.  It's actually been on my mind since I wrote that post about the importance and value I feel in being a mother, having a good mother, and wanting my daughter to be a good mother.  I am forever indebted to my mother and mother in law.  Being happy with my babe for 15 years stems from him being raised by such an incredible mother as well as me having the greatest mother.


But for now...me being a mother. IT IS THE BEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO ME.

For starters you may not know the depth of my story, so here's a little insight in my past.  First I have ALWAYS wanted to be a mom.  I remember going babysitting and thinking, "thats not what I would do" or "I'm totally going to do that"  I have always loved kids and I knew that it's what I wanted in my life after I got married. 

I met my Ernie in 2001, fell in love at first sight and got married.  We had so much fun together just the two of us, and eventually we wanted kids so we "started trying" or rather weren't preventing.  Funny how those sayings make me giggle a little hee hee hee.  Anyway, we tried for 5 years and couldn't get pregnant.  We had lots of tests done and no one ever told us why we couldn't.  One thing led to another and we felt that adoption was our route.  We gathered the necessary paperwork, took the required classes, paid our money and were about to create a profile when SUDDENLY....DUN...DUN...DUN....I WAS PREGNANT!!!! WHAT???????????  It was truly a miracle.  That might not even be the miracle...the miracle is that I got pregnant two other times without "trying"  that was the miracle!!  

Those three dates in my life have been the best dates of my life (not including my marriage date, which will forever and always be the first)....September 22, 2008; April 8, 2011; and March 6, 2013 changed my life in ways I had never expected.  I became a MOM.  It's funny because I look back and think I was just made for this.  I LOVED being pregnant, I miss being pregnant, I loved giving birth, and mine were all so easy.  It is a shame I didn't have more, or were able to start earlier.  That's the beauty of life though.  It's unexpected, so you roll with it.  You take the bad with the good, the good with the bad and I've learned accepting those situations right off the bat has created a happier me.  

Roman Max Sorensen

 Sicily Sorensen

Rocco Anders Sorensen

Like I said earlier in a post I did a few weeks/months ago, I talked about how I met my best friend.  For whatever reason I went into a tangent about being a mom and what it meant to me.  You can see the whole post here...but I've copied most of what I wrote because I do feel so passionately about it.

To me, being a mom is THE hardest job.  Granted i've never been a Dentist, an architect, or lawyer..., and I didn't get a degree in "Motherhood" but that's the hard part about being a mom.  There is no formal education, there isn't a course, or degree on how to comfort a crying baby, to juggle a 7 yr, 5 yr and 3 yr old, or curb whining.  I have a friend who only has one child and she says that she constantly hears from moms with multiple children "well, you don't know because you only have one" well...my theory is that is we all don't know.  I'm a new mom every year, every day.  I don't know what it's like to be a mom of a new born, a 2 yr old, and a 4 yr old, or a 7 yr, 5 yr and 3 yr...and in 5 years, it will be my first time being a mom of a 12yr, 10 yr, and 8 yr old.  It's ever changing, it's a job that requires active thinking, daily awareness, mind control, patience, creativity, constant encouragement, continual paradigm shifts.  I love it for all of these factors.  I have friends who work and say they need to get out of the house. I've even had friends say they feel like they are getting dumber being home.  While I may take offense to these statements, I do understand what they are trying to say, and I've also learned that everyone is different.   Me personally, I LOVE being home.  It's my happy place.  Like I said, while I may not have an education in motherhood, it's a continuing education field, I'm learning everyday and I think that's the trick of being a good mom.  Learning and seeking out education in "alternative" ways.  There aren't any CE credit courses or masters' programs in this field.  It takes drive, dedication to seek out further knowledge on day to day topics.  Understanding development, nutrition, psychology, behavior modification, counseling, teaching, and so much more.

I look to my fellow friends and mothers for this inspiration and I am so grateful for a founding friendship like mine and my best friend Megan, we started out as mothers together and continue to find support in each other as well as other moms around us.  Let me also say I support moms who work outside the home! My mother worked, she had to work, and I have sitters, sisters in laws, cousins, friends, etc that work so I would be remiss if I didn't throw that in there.  I know some would rather stay home and that's the luck of life.

  I myself have ALWAYS wanted to be a stay at home mom, I received an college education and am grateful for that and encourage all to have an education, but for me, having a kids was a job I wanted.  Maybe later in life I will pursue furthering my collegiate education, or find a job in the workforce, but for the time being, a mom to little kids is so short lived I am having a blast doing it, being part of it, and honored that I have these little creatures in my life.  

They are my world.  They have made me a better person. I am constantly learning, laughing, loving and being loved by them.  I hope that I can inspire them as they have me.  The joy and happiness that I find being a mom exceeds all other happiness and joy I have had in my life.  I never thought that I could love as much as I love them.  I wondered with each one how I could love another child, was it possible to love yet another one.  It's amazing how the capacity for love just grows.  It really knows no bounds.  

***It would also be a shame to not mention my own mother in this post since she is the one who raised me and taught me.  Like I mentioned earlier, she worked outside the home while raising five kids.  Ironically she just retired, and I can't help think how tremendously difficult it must have been for her to do all that she did and still be such a wonderful mother.  She has taught me how to be proper, only the best manners in our home.  She has taught me how to take care of myself, to be dedicated, how to work hard, she taught me sacrifice, patience, the ability to go without and be happy.  She has taught me to be grateful, kind and openminded.  She has taught me to use my weaknesses for strengths, to strive to do better and be better, to set goals.  

The list could go on, and I know I am missing so many other important lessons she has taught me.  Most importantly in the last few years she has taught me that motherhood doesn't stop once you raise your kids and they no longer live with you.  She has shown me the true meaning of unconditional love and how to stand by your children through the worst of times.  She is such a strength and constant in my life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters.  I can't imagine losing a child and still be and have faith in life, faith in God, and faith in myself.  She is what I strive to be as a mom.