My Best Day...

Recently, I celebrated my 57th birthday, just one week shy of the Nativity of Our Lady Herself...on 1 Sept. I am very happy to have been born in the same month as the Mother of All People, and I love Her for the fact that She loves me!
I was also able to celebrate with my family the fact that our son and his wife are expecting a firstborn on or near 14 Mar, 2008 ~ our first Grandchild...what a joyous event and one that I await with bated breath...
He is the first of our children to be married, so this is a whole new ballgame for me; and the fact that the news came to me on my birthday just made the day even sweeter!
I was able to go before Our Lady on Her special Feast and tell Her all that was in my heart ~ my feelings for Her and Her Son, for my own son, and for his child, son or daughter.
I am already in love with this baby ~ it matters not one whit to me whether it is a boy or a girl ~ I will probably spoil him or her shamelessly, LOL, and hold onto the years as they pass, just as I have with my own children!
My arms already ache to hold this new life; I will want to be nearby every day. I feel almost as if I were the one who is pregnant...counting the very days until I can count the fingers and toes, coax the first smiles, sing to sleep...
I imagine sometimes how Our Lady must have felt as She looked forward to the Birth of Her own Divine Son...did it fully register in Her mind how it would be? Did She anxiously await the day as much as any mother? Or did She occupy Her mind with day-to-day activities, as She had before She gave Her Fiat? I believe it was both...She knew He was the Son of God, no ordinary man; She had been chosen, and She knew it! She sang Her Magnificat to Elizabeth and held all these things in Her Heart. She must have wanted to shout it from the hilltops!
All of the grief that a new mother goes through ~ will my baby be early or late, making me sick all the while? will my baby be healthy or sickly? will my baby be born with no complications? ~ the wondering and waiting seems interminable, and yet it is only a few months.
True, I am not pregnant. I have been through all of that, ten times over...I have raised my family, for better or for worse. I watch my children now and I remember how they were.
Our Blessed Mother, the Mother of God Himself, given to us from the Cross of Her Divine and most Beloved Son Jesus Christ, this Woman from Whom all women everywhere take their cue ~ She went through it all Herself. She knew the pains and the joys of being a Mother, both the everyday tasks and the life-long adventure! She, too, watched Her Son grow up to be a Man, and yet remembering the whole time that He was also God.
Her own Motherhood was just like mine, and yet it was also completely different.
If He ever gave Her a surprise on Her birthday, I'm sure She loved it! I'm sure He brought Her a bouquet of flowers as a small Child. I'm sure He needed watching as He played. He was taught to pray, wield a tool in His foster-father's workshop, bring in the water jars, a myriad of things...
And all through the years of His growing up, He loved His Mother with all of His Sacred Heart.
I know that my son also loves me with all of his heart, just like Jesus loves His Mother. I know that this surprise of my first Grandchild was a weeks-long plan by him and his wife. I know that as my life goes on, my son will continue to bring me news of his life, his family, his work. And I will remember the happiness I felt at this wonderful news for the rest of my life.
Yes, my birthday this year was the best day! I received gifts from my other children as well, gifts that they planned out, spent time and money on, cards that they wrote out in secret...a beautiful hand-made portfolio from one daughter, a gift card from another, Art supplies from my other son, a lovely window hanging from two, dinner cards from others...
Any gift that Jesus gave to His Mother during His lifetime I am sure that She held onto with love in Her Immaculate Heart for the Son Whom She adores.
Just as I hold in my heart the memory of my Best Day, and all the joy that my children brought to me, their mother, that day...and the love that we, Our Lady and I, share as mothers and friends ourselves...that will remain in our hearts forever.