~* I Am a Mother *~

My oldest son Joshua Michael came to me on July 15,1991 after three years of infertility treatments. We had reached the point of giving up and then I was full of life. His birth was terrifying. He came a little over a month early after trying to come a month earlier than that. A month of bedrest to protect and nurture my child gave him just enough time to be strong enough to great the world. After an emergency C-Section and all those horrifying moments for my husband not knowing if he would possibly lose one or both of us God held us and with medical care we were both fine. We brought him home after a week in the neonatal unit, this little miracle. I will always remember the smell of him and how my heart felt so full it would burst.
My second son Cody Alan came to me on November 15,1995. Medically we will never know how he came to be. I was to have surgery to try to conceive again, medications to make me fertile....and there he was just made from our love. I was so sure I would lose this child as I had lost one before Josh and one before him. I was in a weak mental state as my mother had just passed away.Circumstances can make you stop and ponder faith if you believe. He was conceived exactly a week to the day that my mother died, I found out I was pregnant exactly a month to the day that my mother died and his due date was that of the first child we had conceived and lost in miscarriage at almost five months pregnant. I should have had a hard time carrying him at all let alone to term and he ended up being  two weeks overdue. I had a natural birth and a healthy baby. It was an amazing moment to be a part of this birth, to have him go from my womb right into my arms. I like to believe he was a gift from God.....and my mother.
My sons are all that I could ask for. They are both handsome and kind and have good hearts. They are gentleman like their father. I love my boys so much and am so grateful and blessed to be given the chance to call them mine. Even though we are now beyond all those childhood days that I miss...no more PTA events to chair, Halloween costumes to sew, scraped knees to patch up with a bandaid & a kiss...I am into a new era with them as young men. They are building futures and finding their own way. This new chapter of their adulthood has been amazing as I watch who they become. I wonder what the future will hold when they move out and begin their own lives and my husband and I begin another one ourselves. Will they be happy in their career choices, have wives and (hopefully)children that they too will love as we have? Will they have to move away or will they be able to stay here and thrive? For today they are still here with ME...and I am so blessed!!
As I celebrate today I will love my children for the fine young men that they are, I will love my body though not a size 8 and will never see a bikini again because it gave LIFE, I will love my husband for creating these boys with me and fathering them with such compassion & grace, I will love my mother and hold her in my heart as I can no longer hold her in my arms, I understand her more now as a woman and not just a mother than I ever have. I will celebrate these blessings and pray for those who don't that they might someday be able to. Every day I am a woman, a wife, a sister, a friend, and I am a Mother.
**Blessings and love to all of you**                            
Happy Mother's Day
~Kriss~

                                                                                
                              ~Michael & I with the boys on the night of Josh's graduation last June~

                                                                              ~Josh~

                                                                              ~Cody~