My mom started cross stitching this quilt for me when I was in the womb and 26 years later she is finishing it for Scarlett. There was a moment somewhere in the past five years where my brain made the switch from dependent youth to independent adult, and in this switch my parents went from my parents to fellow adults. Now, with the addition of Scarlett, we have progressed from fellow adults to fellow parents.
My relationship with my parents has always been pretty good, we laugh and we love but we never really learned how to communicate, when I became a parent everything was immediately altered. I needed my parents, and mostly my mom. I needed her to watch my belly grow, I needed her to bring home bed pads from the hospital just in case my water broke in the middle of the night (which it did and which I didn't put the pads on the bed, lesson learned...always listen to your mom), I needed her to tell me everything was okay when I was convinced Scarlett was never going to come, I needed to hear her voice encouraging me when it was time to push, I needed to see her eyes swell with tears at the sight of my beautiful little girl, and I need her to continue to give me guidance as I stumble my way through raising a tiny human being. With the birth of a daughter and a grandchild the communication lines opened. We now toe the line between daughter, mother and friend. I can only pray that one day Scarlett will see me the way I see my mom, someone that I love, trust, respect, and need.
This quilt, will always be a symbol of the bond between my mother and I, a bond that started at my conception and has continued to develop through the birth and life a beautiful little unexpected blessing.
Thank you mom for being a mother and a friend as I make this transition into parenthood...I have been so lucky to watch you love Scarlett the way you do and can't imagine raising her without you.
And because a post is never complete with out a picture of Scarlett...here is one my mom sent me while I was at work the other day with the message..."playing with her new toys". Oh, how spoiled she is going to be.