If parenting came with a handbook, what would you add to it?
You are about to learn that all of the cliches are true. The worst job you'll ever love. The days are long (very long) but the years are short. A love like no other. All are true in some way. The sacrifice, pain, and joy motherhood begins in defines the entire experience. You will give everything everyday and most days will get nothing in return, and you will think nothing of it.
After carrying this baby for nine months it feels like he or she is more yours than anything in the world. It's true for a time this baby will belong to you--but only for a time. As time passes you realize the truth. You create, love, nurture, sacrifice, and give everything of yourself and hold tight, only to figure out that the point of it all from the beginning is letting go.
You have to let go to go back to work. You let go so they can take their first step. You let go on the first day of school. You let go in little ways and big ways when the time is right so that your baby will grow to live a life as full as yours. Letting go is a defining act of parenting.
When it gets hard--and even when it is joyful and easy--I remember that, and it helps me appreciate the moment, whatever it is, because it reminds me this time will pass and someday my son will have a life of his own because that is why I gave him life.
Twenty years doesn't seem like such a long time anymore when you are a mom.
So don't blink.
