Mother's Day Weekend

When I was a child, Mother's Day was a chance to honor my beloved mom. During my twenties it became a holiday I dreaded. I usually didn't go to church on Mother's Day. First because I was single and wondering if I'd ever get married and become a mom. We got married when I was 29 years old, and it wasn't long into our marriage that we realized we were dealing with infertility. Mother's Day was even more difficult during the years we were trying unsuccessfully to grow our family through pregnancy or adoption. I think the hardest one of all was 2007 when I was 35 and we realized we were coming to a dead end with our efforts to adopt both within the US and Ukraine. Mother's Day was completely different in 2008 when I was in my third trimester with Nadia. I am so very, very grateful for my three miracles. I absolutely love being a mother! Every Mother's Day, I still find myself thinking of women whose arms are empty either due to pregnancy loss, infertility, or singleness. In May 2016 I knew that it would be my mom's last Mother's Day on earth. I had planned to go to

Maryland and visit her that weekend. She talked me out of it. If I could go back in time, I would have come down anyway. Mother's Day in 2017 and 2018 was hard for a totally different reason. I couldn't talk to my mom or give her a hug. I still miss my mom very much, but life without a mom here on earth has become the new "normal" given in two months she'll have been gone for three years. My grief over losing my brother has far overshadowed any grief related to missing my mom on Mother's Day. Also, my brother's passing has helped me see a positive of my mom's homegoing. I am very, very grateful she didn't have to experience losing Maurice while she was alive on earth. To wish that she was still here with us would be to wish that she would walk this painful road. Instead, she has been reunited with him in Glory. Similarly, it helps me emotionally to think that Maurice has able to hug mom again. I am very thankful for my mom and look forward to being reunited with her some day. Speaking of my children, she loved them dearly, and that meant the world to me. I wish

they had been able to enjoy more years with her here on earth, but again I have the hope that they will spend eternity with their grandma.

Tomorrow morning Paul will be going to work and then he'll be sharing a meal at his parent's house. Millie is cooking the meal. I had the kids each make her something yesterday, and I bought her a few things for Mother's Day. We love Grandma Kennedy very much also and hope she has a special Mother's Day with her two sons! I'm taking the kids to church, and then we're leaving right from church to drive to Pennsbury Manor, which was the home of William Penn. Originally I had planned to take them there this month when they were having a special program for school children, but it turns out you have to make arrangements more than four months in advance as they were already booked when I got around to making our reservation. We're staying at a hotel near Princeton, NJ tomorrow night as we do have reservations to participate in a program for school children at

Washington Crossing Park on Monday. I also plan to take the kids to the Old Barracks Museum (also from the Revolutionary War) in Trenton that afternoon before we drive to Jersey City for our second night at a hotel. Tuesday we plan to walk to the top of the Statue of Liberty and also visit Ellis Island before returning home. I have packed our lunches to eat in the van after we leave church tomorrow, but we will be eating out the next seven meals. Breakfast is included at the second hotel. I am bringing gift cards for McDonald's, Subway, Red Robin, Dunkin Donuts, etc. and hope that several of those meals will be covered by gift cards. I have packed some fruit and granola bars. We've been wearing short sleeved shirts, but we packed long sleeve shirts for the trip. The weather was pretty today, but the forecast doesn't look as great for the next three days. Thankfully thus far none of us are showing signs of catching Ian's cold, and Ian was doing a bit better today. 

Originally I had planned to go to commencement today, but Paul needed to go to work and the

kids couldn't go to Grandma's house as we didn't want to expose Grandma to Ian's germs as she just had a chemo treatment this week. Awhile ago I had scheduled a history event on our calendar for today that I was hoping Paul would take the kids to while I was at commencement, but for the kids and I today was a low key day at home. One thing I did was get a library card with the library in Philadelphia because that enabled us to have free access to Hoopla which is quite the gold mine when it comes to audiobooks, movies, etc. I was thrilled to find some books I can access digitally through that library which our local libraries don't have. I will be spending less money on Audible in the future thanks to Hoopla. Today I also renewed our $40 a year membership with the Owensboro museum, which is the best $40 I spend each year as it gives our whole family free access to MANY science museums, children's museums, and even some historic sites. We plan on using the membership quite a few times during our vacation which starts in 17 days!  I have a list of spring cleaning type tasks that I want to tackle over the next three months. Today I vacuumed and cleaned inside the van. That was long overdue! My exercise yesterday was mowing the lawn. I considered walking to a playground today, but I ended up just driving Oliver and Nadia to one instead of walking. The contractor continued to work on our new deck today. He built the steps and installed the privacy lattice around the bottom. Who knows, it might be complete by the time we get home on Tuesday night!