I am mom

I never thought I would be a mother. As a teenager, kids were to me annoying and spoiled and snotty. That goes to show the kind of children I was exposed to. So mother's day was always about my mother, until I turned 30 and a text-book type of biological clock called me to the barracks. That and a willing partner was all it took to hop on the roller coaster. Once in it, though, the ride was a different story.

I have two children. And I just stopped myself from putting an adjective in front of that word, because calling my kids "amazing", "incredible", or "awesome" doesn't do them justice even when those are all accurate descriptions. My son is going to be 5 next month. He is precise and can focus on and master brain puzzles that most kids his age would just stare at. He likes things to be right and people to be fair. And he loves superheroes. My daughter is going to be 3 in two months. She is a hurricane with physical abilities that provoke jaw dropping reactions on her parents. She is so strong willed that I have no doubt she will not let anybody run her life, ever. She is into imitating her brother and although she lets me dress her in neutral clothes, she loves tulle and purple. My kids drive me crazy and keep me sane, they teach me patience and make me lose it every day, they love me in ways I didn't know existed and forgive me before I even yell at them.

One day, I will not be here. Hopefully my kids will. And I wish to leave behind infinite photos of them, so they can see themselves how I see them. My husband takes photos of the three of us, in which I inevitably look... well, like a mom, like a caretaker who has put more effort into her children than herself. I am saving those images though. I want us to #existinphotos together for when we don't exist in other ways. And starting this year, I am getting our portrait taken every year. I invite you to do the same with your mom. It is the best gift I could receive as a mother myself: to know that my children want to remember us together and want to celebrate the documenting of those moments with me.

Photo by Stella Maris Yobe