This Mother’s Day weekend is particularly special for me as I reflect on the first half of my life spent with my mother and the second half of my life spent with my daughter. At this point it is almost a perfect divide in time and I am awed by the positive influence both strong women have had on the person I am today.

As I write we are waiting for our family and friends to arrive and join us in a celebration of our daughter’s graduation from college. It’s hard to believe it has been four years since that August day we dropped her off. She has earned a BA in Social Work and is readying herself for the next phase of life.

Our daughter has a strong calling to serve the young mothers and children of Romania, and she has talked about it since she was fifteen. I was shocked when she first mentioned that God wanted her to go to Romania and serve Him because she wasn’t even old enough to drive. Yet, she knew. My “Mom” answer to that was “after college you can follow your heart” but she was determined and decided to take a year in between high school and college to move to Romania. It was the most difficult time for me - even harder than when she was born and I felt so all alone having just lost my own mother to breast cancer.

I wish my mother was here with us this weekend to celebrate, to stand beside her husband at the ceremony

After a year of very hard work and sacrifice she came back to earn her degree in Social Work so that she could return eventually to Romania better equipped to the serve the young mothers and children she longed to help and had grown to love. And so here we are, four years later. She is done with school and her plane ticket is purchased for June 1st.

She’ll return to Romania for at least two and a half years.

My friends are worried about how I will adjust to not having my only daughter in my daily life, but I have had years to come to terms with her devotion and I am nothing but incredibly proud, which over shadows my sorrow. How could I possibly be selfish when such sacrifice is staring me in the face?

I know she is with us in spirit and smiling brightly over her granddaughter’s shoulder. It is a glorious day and the perfect weekend to celebrate mothers.

I wish my mother was here with us this weekend to celebrate, to stand beside her husband at the ceremony as the two of them began our family’s journey over fifty years ago.

I know she is with us in spirit and smiling brightly over her granddaughter’s shoulder. It is a glorious day and the perfect weekend to celebrate mothers.

Jo-Anne