I got my baby back, if I can say that. Let me ‘splain…
I know I’ve talked about my kids before, my son and daughter that I became a mom to when I married the wasband. Well, actually, I became a mom the day I met them, three years earlier.
I was nervous to meet them, they were the kids of the man I was in love with and going to marry, no pressure there! It took a minute, well, it took my son about 30 seconds, he was a little love and people pleasure and wanted to be loved, he was very open to meeting me and establishing a relationship. My daughter on the other hand, very wary, she took a minute to warm up, which I totally respected, here’s this woman coming in and is with her dad and wants to be friends. Once she did, it was on. My kids are fantastic, always said so, ok, so maybe I’m biased, what parent isn’t?
Well, we were a family for about twelve years and then, well, we weren’t. I’m not going into much more about that. My kids went with their dad, as they should, it was just hard not being a part of their lives after being in their lives for twelve years. I have to tell you, after the initial shock and all the other ugly stuff that goes with divorce, losing that relationship was almost if not worse than what happened with my marriage.
It was hard on them too, what do they do? What’s the etiquette here? Is there? Well, the one thing I do every year is to wish them a happy birthday. I have gotten some great responses over the years and TYL, as she will now be known, has made me cry more than once, but these tears were tears of joy, unlike the tears of frustration that that teenager put me through, on occasion. She was living up to her job as a teenage girl, bravo! ha ha
I don’t know if you remember our chat on Mother’s Day, when I talked about wishing her a happy birthday and her response? Well, it was fabulous and made me need a box of Kleenex in the middle of whatever airport I was in. I took a chance that day and told her I travel to Atlanta quite often and I would love to see her if she was interested. Guess what! Oh yes!
So…today, we met for brunch at one of her favorite places, she actually orders lunch from there all the time. I took her to the original Flying Biscuit when she was a kid and she must have liked it.
I cannot even tell you what it was like seeing her! I’m tearing up talking to you about it right now! She is tall and beautiful, she was taller than me so quickly, well, at 5’ 1/2″ it doesn’t take much! She looks exactly like she did when she was younger, just a little more wise, you can see it in her eyes. I am so not trying to rhyme in this post!
We hugged and cried, well, I blubbered and she begged me to stop since she’s pregnant and her emotions are all out of whack! We went in to sit down and have breakfast and had to send the waiter away several times because we were too busy talking!
We talked, oh man, did we talk! About everything! About her husband, his son, my grandson to be, her brother and sister, her mom and step dad, both sets of grandparents, all the cousins and aunts and uncles. Even though it’s been eight years, I remember all of them, of course, in my mind they’re all still wee tots. We talked about her mom and even her dad. No negative about her dad, that’s not my place, I wanted to reassure her that what I had with her dad, until the you know what hit the fan, was good, it was so good, no regrets. What we talked about were memories, good ones and we laughed, oh did we laugh! And that laugh, I remember that laugh.
She told me so many wonderful things that made me smile, things she remembered from childhood, things she has taken into adulthood and one of the most wonderful things she said was that I taught her how to be a step mom. How special is that, I taught her how to be a step mom. Thank you, that means the world to me.
She’s a bright, funny, silly, independent, loving, responsible, with it, young woman who is married and going to have a baby. OMG! When did that happen? She’s going to be a wonderful mother, she has a good head on her shoulders.
Even though we haven’t seen each other in about eight years, there were times it felt like we had just seen each other last week, there was a familiarity that felt so wonderful. Every once in a while I just sat there and marveled at her and that we were sitting there together. It felt like our relationship was the same and yet different. I still look at her as my daughter and she still looks at me like a mom, but it also felt like a friendship, something that some mother-daughter relationships turn in to, special on a different level.
After we finished brunch, we walked around Piedmont Park and at one turn I asked which way and she said keep going, I’m going to keep you as long as I can. Can you imagine how I felt at that moment? I have a feeling you can, we’ve been friends for a long time and you know what my family means to me, especially my kiddies.
We parted company with a promise of talking and texting and a future visit, this was after about 15 last hugs, fabulous! I told her to text me when she got home, just like I did when she first started driving, too cute.
So…any chance you saw me floating by? Think my feet have touched the ground yet? Not a chance!
Peaches Prattlings 