Mother's Day 2012

This was a very special Mother's Day. For the last 5 weeks Joe has been working in El Paso after spending a week in Scottsdale Arizona. He came home for Easter and a few days the weekend of Jake's birthday but has otherwise been gone. I cannot truly express how grateful I am to have a husband who is so hardworking, willing to sacrifice time away from home and family to give us everything that we have.

Solo parenting is hard, very hard. I tried not to complain too much the last 6 weeks because I have SO many friends who endure much more frequent and longer separations from their spouse due to work, many of them military. I also have friends who through divorce or the loss of their spouse, now find themselves single parenting permanently. And they have my utmost respect.

But as hard as solo parenting can be, or even just parenting  in general, I wouldn't trade being a mom for anything. I cannot imagine not having Joe and the kids and all the love and happiness they bring me. I got so many gifts this weekend - a new end table I had been coveting, time to myself to get my hair done, a great family dinner with Joe's parents, grandparents sister's family and some friends on Saturday, a homemade necklace and poem from Jake, a painted butterfly magnet and card from Jadyn and a super fun BBQ with friends on Sunday.

But the greatest gift by far is having my family together again - the two reasons I am fortunate enough to celebrate Mother's Day as a mom and the man behind the camera who introduced me to a dream I never even knew I had. Because I never could have dreamed of having so much love and happiness. And as I said, now I can't imagine it any other way.