It happened again

yesterday. Two of my friends had their babies. Funny thing was both of them were due on Christmas day and both of them came 5 days late. Amazing isn't it? So today I get newborn cuddles. There is nothing quite like newborn cuddles. The first time you hold your own baby as a newborn is the most amazing experience you can ever imagine. It is like the light of all the world comes from everywhere and shines through your child and into your heart.

The birth of subsequent children does not detract from this, nor is it any less special when they arrive. The feelings, they come again, and the heart lightening and warming happens again.

But once you are a mother, any newborn cuddles become more special, because you know what the mother is feeling. You can see the pure joy through fatigued eyes and weary bones, you can see that this little person is surrounded by love and you can almost feel the hope, the fear, the joy, the heartache, you can sense every  emotion that this woman, who has gone through so much to grow the little child, is feeling.

And as the children grow up, at a speed to rival that of light, love only grows. Other emotions also grow. Frustration, fatigue, joy, happiness, agony, fear, the wonder of seeing your child grow and the anguish and deep hurt it causes when your child is in pain.

And they say women are the weaker sex. I think not. It takes every ounce of strength in my body to raise my kids, and I will continue to do so, and continue to become stronger, and I shall bear every burden they do, feel every graze or bruise, suffer through teething and sleepless nights with them, share in their successes, whether it be completing a puzzle or baking a cake, or graduating down the track, and I will truly ache in my heart when the time comes, and I know it will eventually, that they must commence their own lives. It is such a long way away, but with the time racing so fast if I don't prepare myself now I fear I just won't cope.

My kids are my life. And they always will be.