This Blog Post Is For You Mom!

Empathy.  What is Empathy?

Empathy is the ability to mutually experience the thoughts, emotions, and direct experience of others. It goes beyond sympathy, which is a feeling of care and understanding for the suffering of others. 

(Empathy Vs. Sympathy found at www.diffen.com)

Some people are born with the ability to empathise.  My mom is one of these people.  To me, this ability is a rare and amazing gift.  Her ability to understand how it might feel to experience a situation that she has never experienced.....that is amazing!

This picture was taken the last time I saw my mom...May 2011!!

When I suffered three miscarriages in the span of 7 months back in 2007, my mom was there for me with a shoulder to cry on and loving arms to fall into.  She had never experienced the loss of a child, the loss of a baby that never made it past the safeness of the womb, yet somehow she "got it".  She was able to "put herself in my shoes" which is what I needed and wanted so badly at the point in my life.  Just someone who understood, my sadness, my loss, my anger.

I struggle some days with Stella's diagnosis.  I go through days of feeling sorry for myself, for Stella.  There are days I feel like the world is against Stella, the world is against anyone who is different, who is not what society deems "normal".  I have voiced my frustrations and worries numerous times to my mom and she is always there with empathy, love and understanding....even if she may not fully "get" how I am feeling, I know that she just naturally tries to put herself in my shoes and that gives her the ability to understand why I may feel a certain way.

This blog post is for you mom.

Thank you.  Thank you for being there for me emotionally when I have needed it the most.

Thank you for the kisses you smothered on my face as a child.

Thank you for the warm chest to lay my head on when I was sick as a baby.

Thank you for the many meals you made (even though I despised the stew that you made with all those big chunks of onions, thanks for slaving over a hot stove to make it)

Thanks for letting me watch TV all day when I was sick, and for bringing me toast cut into little strips.

Thanks for coming over almost every day when Olivia was a newborn and all she did was cry all day, everyday.

Thanks for taking over night feeds when Sophie was a baby (you living in the basement suit was so convenient!).

Thanks for letting my cry and sob on the phone to you when Stella was whisked away to the NICU the day after she was born.  Even though you weren't able to be there physically for me, just talking to you on the phone helped me.

Thanks mom.

I love you.

LOVE YOU MOM!