On this day, 10 years ago, I was in a hospital room sucking on ice chips as my world was about to change permanently. 10 years ago exactly, I became the mother to the most amazing human being I have ever known.
This journey has been far from easy. In fact, it has been more difficult than any other dare devil task I have undertaken – from jumping onto moving trains, to jumping out of planes, to launching myself backwards off a trapeze. When it comes to risking my life, it’s a shrug and a smirk on my part. But, creating life, nurturing life – that causes so much more anxiety.
Before she entered this world, I was angry, depressed, and lonely. I was eager to run away from the world. At 15, my only goal was to finish high school so I could spend a year backpacking in Australia, with the determination that I wouldn’t stop traveling after that. At 16, I found out I was pregnant.
It took two years and a few thousand miles of separation before I was able to be a mother. I was trudging through the routine, going to college and working, and still trying to remember to feed her, get enough sleep, and still be attentive. When an opportunity to study in Ireland presented itself, my parents urged me to take it. They insisted they could handle things, and that I needed to be do it. So, I submitted my application and found myself living in Derry for 6 months, and doing archaeology on Achill Island for 2. In the middle, Ellette had her 2nd birthday and I realized that I really wanted to be a mother to her.
Ellette is my counterweight – she pushes when I am still and digs her feet in when I move to fast. She has always shown compassion for everyone, and constantly reminds me to see the good in people. She helps me remember to be silly – from walking like cats down the bustling streets of Chicago, to singing about pink pajamas at the top of our lungs as we walk home from school, to building snow day forts and making silly faces. She is my light.
My adventure never stopped. I have criss-crossed the country with her at my side. We have had spontaneous road trips and meticulously planned trips, and she has been eager for every one.
She has never asked “Are we there yet?” She is the queen of 15 hours in a car – packing books and sketchpads and music and games to entertain herself. She tells me to cool it when I feel road rage and is entirely game for detours to junk yards with rusty planes and vintage bikes and museums for obscure artifacts. She can run across the fields with me and sit in the shade eating ice cream cones.
So, 10 years have gone by so quickly. And we have managed to pack a hundred adventures into them. Let’s take the next 10 by storm. Happy birthday, munchkin!