This is Our Daughter

My heart is bursting on this beautiful sunny Sunday/Mother's Day.My mind is full too and I will attempt to unload some of the heartfelt thoughts percolating in my brain. First thing I saw out the window this morning when I came downstairs to put the coffee on was one of our cows laboring to give birth in the pasture. She appeared to be flailing and struggling while the entire herd circled around her. The two young calves frolicked nearby sometimes getting too close and being 'spoken to' by one of the elders.It was a frightening, exciting scene.But it unfolded in a natural and beautiful manner. Mama got to her feet and with a final push the calf was delivered. The aunts and father continued to circle giving support.Mama licked baby calf and forced it to its wobbly feet. Now a few hours later the calf suckles and frolics near Mama's side. Every now and then the two big cousins get too rambunctious and too close for Mama's liking and she puts the run to them. Amazing and so like human motherhood and family.Burton and I just returned from the Legion where we had brunch with Chapin, Brianne and the kids. My heart rejoices in the miracle of that family. The 'cousin family' Paige named them last summer and the name stuck. The Young White's was how Chapin signed my Mother's Day card. Motherhood, family: the wonderful plan to nurture children. I had Dad to the cardiologist on Thursday and he introduced me to the doctor as 'Our daughter.' It warmed my heart . Even though one half of the our is now missing and I celebrate this first Mother's Day without my mother my Dad's words honor her part in who I am. My heart is full and I see this day as an opportunity to just allow the wonder of motherhood to surround me. I acknowledge the fact it is the twentieth year of missing my oldest son. I pray for the four mothers in Miramichi who are feeling that loss today on their first Mother's Day after their sons and daughter's deaths. I pray for motherless children, fathers who must carry on . I give thanks for the privilege I was given to mother four children ,and continue to hold my children in my heart , to be grandmother to five children and Nanny Sue to four others,to be like a loving mother in my classroom for 29 years and to now write books with stories of mothers, of families, of imperfection and of love.