Happy Mother's Day!

Today is Mother's Day here in the UK.
Happy mother's Day!

I love this photo!
It was taken of me and my Mum in the garden in the summer with our family dog, Sue, all in the hammock when I was 20 months old. It has always been one of my favourite photos. I don't know if it just seemed to be a happy day memory or that I remember the hammock being such fun swinging in between the 2 pear trees in the back garden or quite what evokes such a happy smiley memory of me and my Mum and the dog.
I remember choosing this photo to stick on my first book I did when I first went to school when I was 5.
I dug out this first prized and still treasured wallpaper covered book this morning from my memory box and took a photo of the photo stuck on the front for you all to see. It's a bit gubbed and gnarled now but precious all the same.

I also found this picture I coloured in for Mum in my memory box. No idea how old I was when I did this, but I guess older than 5 as I almost managed to stay within the lines! Presumably, I decided that yellow was more joyful than purple for these "violets". Either that, or I had no purple! From a young age I have always tended to think out of the box and break the moulds and constraints that said rules like violets should be only coloured purple.

Thank you Mum for choosing me to be part of such an amazing family with you and Dad and my brother and sister. Thank you for accepting me and loving me despite what the authorities and powers that be wrote and said about me when I was first born and when you first met me as a baby. Thank you for loving care and for nurturing and teaching me in all the ways I could go. You have been an incredible influence and role model that has shaped me into the woman I am today. I know I wasn't always soft play dough to mould and shape but at times a bit like concrete needing a chisel, but your love and perseverance seems to have paid off. I loved making and racing those funky turtles from walnut shells with you, by the way. Good times!

I got these flowers today for Mother's Day at church.
Can't help but think about the 2 Mother's I have had in my life.
My first Mother, who carried me, secret and hidden and bravely chose to have me, probably surrounded in shame, choosing to give me life and to bring me into the world. I have always known about you and how special I am to my family, I just never knew you.I recently discovered that you named me when I was 3 days old, tiny and premature. Thank you for wishing me to be in a family. Your wishes came true, against the odds.
I am very blessed to have had 2 amazing Mothers in my life.

Happy Mother's Day.
xxx