Happy Mother's Day

I don't imagine there are too many women when they first learn that they are pregnant consider all the ways in which their bodies are going to change. One of Rachel's doctors described it as a foreign entity invading her body and taking over from the inside out. That's fairly accurate. Neither one of us fully appreciated the extent to which this would radically impact Rachel and to make matters worse I would perpetuate this false notion that there was no possible way God would allow Rachel to have anything, but a perfect pregnancy,labor and delivery. I was very wrong, but that didn't mean God wasn't with us.

Rachel carried our precious daughter for 41 weeks and endured a very challenging pregnancy. As if that wasn't enough she then endured 36 hours of labor in the hopes that she could have a natural birth; not realizing Ella's initial condition would make that impossible. After a day and a half of laboring, my Wonder Woman under went a C-section operation that would also have a lasting impact on her body, in order to deliver our daughter. 

Throughout this blog we often refer to Ariella as our little warrior or little conqueror and quite frankly for her to be reaching the milestones that she has along this journey she has to be a warrior, a Christ ordained fighter, conquering all manner of challenges. Yet, when we consider everything that her mom endured to get her here is not hard to see where Ella got her warrior's spirit. 

Today we not only celebrate Rachel's first biological Mother's Day, but we celebrate all the other mothers that had no clue what they were signing up for when they first took the test that resulted in those two parallel lines. This goes out to Gavin's mom and Corbin's mom and all the moms from the nemaline myopathy facebook group. This Mother's Day we salute mom's who decided not to terminate their babies even though the doctor's told them that their child's life was going to be full of adversity. For every mom who decided being a mom doesn't entitle you to an easy life, but it does mean you are going to love someone more than anyone else has ever loved before and certainly more than that little person could ever possibly love you in return. And for the moms that were blessed with a standard, boring, uneventful pregnancy and delivery don't apologize or feel guilty for that, bless God for it because being a mom comes with enough other challenges that entitle you to recognition and celebration today as well. 

Ella and her Nana, Ruth L. Davis

This goes out to my mom, Ruth Loving Davis, one of my heroes and a great mother in her own right. I am who I am today because of the values and beliefs that my mother deposited in me from birth. When others tried to speak curses and death over me she spoke blessings and life. Today my mother is my prayer partner, confidant and role model. Today we celebrate moms like Ruth, who managed to defy the odds and produce two quality guys who fear God and try to obey His Word.
 



Wonder Woman and her litle Warrior

And to my Wonder Woman, my first conqueror, to the warrior that has been modeling warrior behavior for our daughter from day one, Rachel I salute and celebrate you today. Thank you for never giving up, thank you for continuing to fight. Thank you opening our eyes to see that being a mom sometimes means instead of staying home to care for our child you have go to work everyday in a difficult situation to provide the much needed income and medical benefits our daughter currently can't live without. Thank you for serving as a role to other mothers who feel guilty for not being able to be there for their children the way they have been told all of their lives they were supposed to be. Thank you for being mom the bread winner, mom the provider, mom the more than a conqueror. To Rachel and all the other mothers reading this today, Happy Mother's Day, the Botts Family celebrates you.