Reflections of a Single Mum

      Children learn what they live  by  Dorothy Law Nolte If a child lives with criticism,        He learns to condemn. If a child lives with hostility,        He learns to fight. If a child lives with ridicule,        He learns to be shy. If a child lives with shame,        He learns to feel guilty. If a child lives with tolerance,        He learns to be patient. If a child lives with encouragement,        He learns confidence. If a child lives with praise,        He learns to appreciate. If a child lives with fairness,        He learns justice. If a child lives with security,        He learns to have faith. As a woman who grew up with the first verse's way of life, through no intentional fault of my beloved parents, I was determined to raise my children with t...

When I unexpectedly became pregnant with my youngest son, at the age of almost 40, no less, to say I was shocked is a gross understatement! His father and I had only been dating for about a month (!!) but, I will always see my becoming pregnant as this late stage of my life and also the circumstances during which he was conceived, as a blessing, despite the utter  horror of being with his father for four-five years.  I have had to discipline my thinking to instead of  "oh, why didn't I think this through? You idiot!"to "something good ALWAYS comes out of something bad". I was planning on having a big celebration on my 40th birthday, but God had other plans! (doesn't He always?) however, I was very, very pregnant by my 40th, but, oh the joy I felt at the great anticipation of meeting my precious little Latecomer. I have to say that this last pregnancy was definitely the easiest, once I got past the dreaded  initial 12 weeks of worrying that something mi...

As I said in my previous post, this next one is dedicated to my oldest son.  My little girl was about 15 months old when I fell pregnant with my next little one.  I discovered I was pregnant on Mother's Day, 1990.  Oh what joy I felt!  I was absolutely thrilled! By this stage, my husband, my little girl and myself had moved to a rural area so that my husband could indulge in his passion for Greyhounds by breeding and racing them.  Life was full on, but sadly, our marriage had already begun to develop cracks.  I had hoped with all my heart that having another baby would improve the situation, but unfortunately, that was not the case.  Without going into details, it's suffice to say that things really were not very good between us, but despite these terrible circumstances, I couldn't wait to bring another precious baby into the world. Adding to this was the grief of losing my dear father before my little girl was born, in tragic and sudden circumst...

I want to dedicate this, and the next two posts, to each of my children individually, sharing my experiences and how the day my beautiful daughter was born, was the day I could no longer put myself first. Becoming pregnant with my daughter was a miracle, as were the following two pregnancies with my sons. I had always wanted to be a mother, as I expressed in one of my earlier posts.  I believed with all my heart that becoming a mother was my purpose in life. A few months before I became pregnant with my precious little girl, both my Doctor and my Obstetrician were very much convinced that I suffered from the serious gynecological condition, Endometriosos, which is a very serious medical condition that can prevent a woman from becoming pregnant.  The reason they came to this conclusion and diagnosed this condition was because I suffered horrifically from Dysmenorrhoea (excruciating pain at that time of the month, where you almost pass out from the pain) from the time I wa...