Mother's Day

You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but every now and again I find myself a bit blindsided by how things have changed since I got married.  Yesterday was Mother's Day.  Three years ago and all the years before that Mother's Day would have gone something like this:

I'd have gotten up and gotten ready for church with my mother, father and brother.  My father would have bought corsages for my mother and me to wear to church.  Church would have been followed by coming home and presenting Mom with whatever cards and gifts had been bought for her.  Mom would then relax on the couch and for one day have full control of the remote (much to the horror of my father--but it was Mother's Day, so he coped) and then in the late afternoon/early evening, dinner would be had.  Mom would have chosen the menu and my brother and I usually went partially hungry because Mom would have picked something with mushrooms or olives or some other icky ingredient that my brother and I simply couldn't stomach.  Nevertheless, Mother's Day was always a good day.

Fast forward three years and as a married woman and mother, here's how Mother's Day went:

I got up and took my two girls to church with me.  They're too young for corsages, so no flowers were had.  Everyone at church wished me a Happy Mother's Day, instead of my mother.  I received a number of texts from friends and family expressing the same sentiments.  I left church to find my Mother's Day gift lashed to my windshield by the windshield wipers--thanks be had to my sneaky husband.  I got home with the girls and awaited the arrival of my in-laws.  They arrived shortly after and a few hours later, my husband's older sister showed up.  We spent the afternoon talking and simply enjoying each other's company.  Later on in the evening I had a nice online chat with my husband's younger sister.  My interaction with my own mother on Mother's Day was limited to a five minute phone conversation.

Now, before people get the wrong idea, let me say that of the two scenarios listed above, one is not better than the other.  They are simply different.  I had a perfectly wonderful Mother's Day yet.  The whole point of this is that it takes a day like yesterday to remind me how strongly ensconced I've become in my husband's family.  I married Chaz and was immediately enveloped into the lives of his parents, his brother, his sisters and their kids.  While my bonds with them have become much stronger over the last two years, the bonds between myself and my own parents and brother, haven't become weaker, but have become a bit looser, you might say.  I've become fully enmeshed into the Robertson clan.  I have, in fact, ceased to be a Feicho and become a Robertson. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this and no one on either side of my family, Feicho or Robertson, would say they have a problem with this.  It just takes me by surprise sometimes.  My Mother's Day was spent as a Robertson with the Robertsons (ok, technically my in-laws are Browns, but for the sake of this particular argument we're going to conveniently forget that). 

Changes aside, it was an awesome Mother's Day.  

On a final note, I would simply like to say that I love BOTH of my mothers very dearly and would not be surviving as a mother myself without all their love, support and guidance.  Loreea and Tonya--I love you.  Happy Mother's Day.