Reflection of the Good That Came Before Us

"We are all a reflection of the good that came before us." To me, that is speaking of family, more so blood related family, a heritage of sorts. I learned very early in my life that blood doesn’t mean everything, when it comes to family. It’s who you were raised by and not your chromosomal DNA. Now some may argue that nature makes who you are and not so much the nurture, but for me that’s just not the case.

As you can probably guess from my statements above, I don’t have a typical family. I was put up for adoption when I was a baby, so I never knew my biological family, until I was much older. I moved around a lot before I was 4. Then one day God (yes, God as I believe it was meant to be) had a husband and wife come to visit me and see if they wanted to take me home. I learned later that most people would have just seen me and would have just taken me home as another foster child. This case was different, they were sent there specifically to see if they wanted to adopt me. To see if they wanted ME as their daughter. I’m sure at my young age I really didn’t know what that meant as I had never experienced that before. Not long after that visit, I was taken away from that home and brought to live with that husband and wife (I will now refer to as mom and dad).  It took a few years, but eventually when I was 7, I was able to call them mom and dad for real and forever.  

Me sitting on my social workers lap holding the doll
my mom and dad brought for me as a present.

Throughout the years, my mom tried to teach me patience. To say she was successful or not is a matter of opinion. If anyone could teach someone it would be her. She has got to be the most patient person I know on earth. I mean who else would look at a very scared little 4 year old girl and think, yea why not? I already have a house full of kids, but what is one more?

Over the years, my mom has taught me so much, however, she never succeeded at teaching me how to cook, though I’m sure it is more my fault than hers. She taught me how to swim, how to ride my bike, even when I fell off way to many times to count. I still can see the scars. My mom taught me the states and capitals, and made me practice them over and over until I had them memorized. I didn’t like it at the time, but they did come in handy when in school we were learning about them and I already knew it.

One thing that my mother taught me that I can never repay is to look at people for who they are, not what they look like or even sometimes act like. We all come from different backgrounds. Four out of the five kids in my family are adopted, and we all came from different areas and have different struggles, even to this day. I’m so glad she taught me that, so as an adult I can treat people right. To this day when I meet someone, I may judge them a little (I am human after all), but that won’t stop me from leaning about them. It won’t stop me from being their friend, unless they do something to me personally to prevent that.

In the video below, you see a father and son from +New York Life Insurance Company . You see just how proud that son is to have that man as his father. I want that for my children as well. I want them to say wow, I’m so glad I have the mom I have. I want them to #keepgoodgoing.

        

I may not share DNA with my mom, but she’s still my mom. In some cases that makes her even more of a super mom, because she didn’t have to raise me. She wasn’t forced to do anything with me. She chose to be my mother. She chose to have me in her life, and I’m so proud of the fact that from that one little visit when I was 4, she looked at me and thought, yes this is my new daughter.

My girls July 4th, 2013

Watching my mom care for other people has helped me be the best mom I can be. I had to learn quickly, as I had a little girl of my own when I was only 18. Ten years later I would have another little girl. My 2 daughters are the best of my world.  So now, here we come full circle. We are all a reflection of the good that came before us. Here I am 20 some years later from that first visit with my mom, and now with my own two girls, starting a new legacy. I need to the best mom for them. I want them to look back on their life and have happy thoughts as well. I want them to think. Wow, our mom really loved us and we have learned so much from her. 

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. I was paid for this post, although all the opinions are mine and everything is written in my words. The Nurse Mommy blog will always provide honest opinions, beliefs or experiences on products reviewed. We will only recommend products or services that we feel are of benefit to our readers. If you have any questions about this review please contact me at Katrina.Gehman {at} gmail.com