My friend had a run in with an aquaintance, paraphrased she was told she had no idea what it was like to be a mom since she had never had a child of her own. Does that matter? I will admit, there is something to having a biological child, feeling it kick, the heartburn, the cravings the......magic.......
One day the magic ends and reality sets in and you go through the stages of life from sharing toys, to bringing home siblings, to dealing with broken dreams and broken hearts. A reality scattered with a few truths, some lies, and whatever lies between the two.
It's a hard reality, the broken dreams and hearts thing, much of the time it's forgotten, other times it becomes an imprint on their lives and changes them, sometimes good, sometime not so good.
So what happens to the parents adrift, that bring kids from faraway lands, and parents that unselfishly decide they can't take care of their children? Likewise what happens to those that chose to participate in their children's lives very much like a sporting event where you don't care which team wins, lacidasical at best. Are you still a parent if you chose not to clean up the puke, stroke the hair, and talk away the tears? What if those tears are not from anything but heartbreak from an absent parent?
This week we travel to Ryan's present and his future. He competes in my favorite tournament by far, the US open. I love it because it's in that special place Iranian kids can shake hands with an Iraqi kid, bow and put differences behind them. The world and its problems stop
In this special space. This space also has the Olympic team trials, what maybe Ryan's future.
It's been a trying week. I realize that I can't do it all alone, I can't make an irreverent parent all of a sudden have a heart. To realize compromise is to feel heartbreak. I want to give my children everything I can. I've gone without health insurance for months to make sure my child has the bare minimum to succeed. I wouldn't change it for the world.
