THANK YOU LORI, JOHN & LISA

All my life I wanted to be a "Mommy."

My mother has never been able to understand little girls who leave their dolls laying around naked. Mine were always dressed and tucked into bed if I wasn't playing with them. Mom says I thought my dolls had a "soul."

Can you believe I still have the doll in this picture! She's still intact though not as bright and shiny as she was in this picture. But, then again - neither am I! LOL! By today's standards, we're both antiques!

I always had a doll. . . Always pretending they were my "babies." I even took a life-size baby doll with me to college and made my roommate baby-sit when I went out on dates. Guess what the doll's name was - Lisa! Imagine that!

I've often asked myself what I might have been if I hadn't been a mother . . . the only answer I can come up with that has a ring of truth to it is - MISERABLE! Motherhood was truly my heart's desire.

On July 1, 1966 God granted the desire of my heart and my "dream" was realized. My first child was born. Lori filled the arms of a young mother with a million dreams but not a clue in the world of what it really meant to be a mother!

Lori was our only child and the center of our world for a little more than four years. John was born August 8, 1970 and by the time he was crawling, I was pregnant again. Lisa was born December 18, 1971 - the best Christmas present I've ever gotten! I hardly remember just having two children. It seemed like I went from one to three. Our children quickly became "Lori and the babies" to Roy and me. I think John and Lisa were in junior high and Roy and I were still referring to them as "the babies." LOL!

I'll have to say, motherhood was all I ever dreamed it would be - and more. The challenges kept me busy all day every day and sometimes into the night. But I wouldn't change a minute of it nor a single memory. I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to be a stay-at-home-mom most of my children's lives. What memories I cherish!!

This is Lori at three years old. She grew up entirely too fast and helped "mother" her siblings (often to their chagrin!). The day I took Lori to kindergarten she hopped out of the car with a big grin and a "bye momma" that said "I'm off to conquer the world." When I picked her up a few short hours later I had ceased to be "Momma" and had become "Mother" - which I would remain forever more. LOL!

When Lori was nine her dad had gone on a hunting trip. She and I got the "babies" to bed and decided to have a slumber party - just the two of us. We climbed into my bed and she decided we needed to read Nancy Drew books. After a few minutes she looked up from page 29 of the book she was reading to inquire what page I was on. Woops. Page 9. I think that was the pivotal point in time when she knew she was smarter than the woman who birthed her! It's a settled fact. It's never been up for debate since. ROFL

This is John at three years old. He will probably croak at what a chubby child his Mississippi-fried-foods-Momma had created. Today, he is lean and buff and works hard at staying that way.

As a child, John had a gleeful penchant for presents (I'm not entirely sure he's ever outgrown it). His enthusiasm made occasions like birthdays, Christmas and other holidays utterly momentous. He anticipated the event weeks and weeks in advance and could never sleep the night before the "big day." His sisters will tell you that they can barely remember a Christmas he didn't slip into their room before dawn, wake them up and tell them everything Santa had left under the tree.

As his 6th birthday approached, he talked daily about his birthday party. Every time he mentioned it, I would gently (and not so gently) tell him he was not having a PARTY that year - we were just going to have cake and "family." Around 2 pm the day of his birthday, mothers began driving up and dropping off children (presents in hand) for the party!! When John wants a party - John gets a party - even if he has to invite people himself!! Sure was a good thing I had a cake!

This is my sweet baby girl, Lisa, when she was three. Oh how I loved those soft little curls and that sweet freckled nose! How I loved to dress her in little smocked dresses - and then matching ones to her big sister. Sweet baby girl, you never got any "individual" mothering, did you? You were always part of the "unit" - the "babies." Thank you for not holding it against me.

When Lisa was about a year and a half old, my in-laws had given me several sacks of fresh okra and my mother-in-law had told this "city girl" how to prepare it for the freezer. . . slice it, roll it lightly in cornmeal, spread it on cookie sheets, heat until warm in the oven, then spread it on the table to cool before bagging it for the freezer. I remember spreading a pan out to cool on the table and hurrying to place another pan in the oven. When I turned around, my sweet baby girl had climbed onto one of the kitchen chairs and was standing at the table raking the half-cooked okra into litle piles and stuffing it in her mouth with both hands!

John and Lisa were constant companions and playmates when they were little. What one of them didn't think of - the other did! Once, they got into the pantry and pulled all the labels off my canned goods. For a month I never knew what we were having for supper until after I opened the can! LOL! Another time, they soaked a roll of toilet paper in the commode, pinched it off in little wet pieces and plastered the bathroom walls. It was dried when I found it and I dispaired of EVER getting it all cleaned up! Yet, another time, they played in the Crisco and the flour SIMULTANEOUSLY!!! You cannot possibly imagine the chore I had getting that grease and flour off my kitchen floor and out of those pretty red curls! OMG! I wish we'd had digital cameras back then!! Oh, the memories of motherhood!

They may be funny or they may be fond but regardless, there is nothing as precious to me as my "Motherhood memories." They seem to grow sweeter every year!

On this Mother's Day, I want to say THANK YOU, LORI, JOHN & LISA

• thank you for making my dreams of being a mother come true


• thank you for being more precious than I could ever have imagined


• thank you for enduring my multiplied mothering mistakes


• thank you for loving me anyway


• thank you for filling my life with purpose


• thank you for filling my heart with joy


• thank you for being the wonderful adults you are


• thank you for loving each other

I am so incredibly proud of all three of you!!

Oh. And thank you most of all for giving me grandchildren. You, better than anyone else, know that what my profile on the sidebar says is total truth ... I found my career in motherhood but my CALLING in being a grandmother!! ROFL