Parenting

I am writing about my amazing mom.  She has been a single mom of four for the past 12 years.  We are all grown and living our own lives now, but boy are there stories to share.

My mom is number 6 in a family of 10 kids.  They had many struggles growing up, but all have great lives now with children of their own.  Mom married at 18 and had myslef and my brother.  Her husband had a bad drinking problem and they wound up divorcing when we were just babies.  This was not an easy divorce by any means. 

A few years later, she remarried and went on to have two more sons.  Everything was great, we were a family of six in a lovely home.  We went on yearly trips to the beach.  Then, her life came crashing in when she found out he was having an affair, not with just woman, but several.  The divorce was nasty and drawn out over the span of about 5 years.  He was just horrible to us.  He would get angry at paying child support and cut off the electricity he was ordered to pay.  He would come into the house and steal things from us.  He was nasty.  Finally, she was able to get the divorce finalized.  We lost the house, forced to sell it before foreclosure.  Mom had to set out to find a rental to fit four kids.  She had no job skills, but found work cleaning houses and as a new home assistant.  We had many struggles, went to many food banks, churches for help, etc.  Mom eventually worked her way up to a new homes sales manager, and made a good name for herself.  Some years she made good money, others not, but we were surviving.

In 1999, the two younger boys were victims in a horrible road-rage accident.  Luckily, both survived, however the youngest was flown to shock trauma and has endured many surgeries and was on homeschool for several of his high school years.  He is fine now, but my other brother suffers severe post traumatic from it, as he was the driver.  He does not understand it was not his fault, he just feels bad it was not him.  The boys had to testify in a nasty court hearing that lasted a little over a year against the man who caused the wreck.  The man did serve jail time. 

My one brother (the one driving) never was the same after the wreck and began to drink and get wreckless.  He wound up having an argument with someone one night and was sentenced to 18 months in work release jail.  This was the most devestating thing yet.  We went twice a week to visit him until his release.  This put mom into a depression and made her very sick.  She was forced on disability, unable to work.  She goes to many doctors and is not the same woman she once was.  Although he is home now, other health issues have mixed in with the depression and she struggles everyday.  It has been over a year, and she is not improving.  She has severe pains on a daily basis, can not sleep, is not confident as she once was.  I still know she is strong inside, but she has a hard time showing this.  I feel in my heart, the doctors will find out what is causing this, and she will get better and be her old self again.

I am in a 8 year relationship and we have a 10 month old baby girl.  My second brother is married to a girl and raising her two young children.  The third son is now living on his own with his girlfriend and her daughter from a previous marriage..he is doing well and out of trouble.  The youngest lives at home with mom, helping with the bills, and is a pharmacy technician.  We are an amazingly close family.  She should be proud of how she raised us.  Any one of us would give up everything we have to help someone, esp. our family.

This is why I think I have the most amazing mom.  I hope I am half as good a mother as she is!