It takes a Village…or a Step-Mom!?!

You hear the saying “It takes a Village to raise a child” all the time. Everyone needs help, advice, even a shoulder to cry on when we epically fail, which we all do (even me).  I often find myself questioning why I have such an attachment to my StepChild and how its possible that I often forget that he is not biologically mine. When I look at him, he looks like my biological children, people say all the time, that if they didn’t know, they would never be able to tell.

Maybe, its because when he is in my lap, caressing my face, and saying “Mommy, I love you” my heart melts everytime. Honestly, though I think it has more to do with the fact that I can’t have children anymore, following a hysterectomy in 2007. So, in a sense I was blessed with another child, a dream and desire I so desperately had wanted but couldn’t create on my own.

So, in tottles this One year old baby boy, that at first, I’ll be honest didn’t want anything to do with me, and for me – it was WORK, because my children are so much older. When he would come to stay, it was hard, more involved, and through the months and now years, potty training, and terrible two’s, we grew into a mother and son. Do you even know how hard that is? Does anyone know how hard it is to love someone else’s child, someone who doesnt want you to kiss away booboo’s, or doesnt want you to hold them, feed them, etc…. and yet the two of us, WE DID IT!

Now, I’m the best booboo kisser, the ultimate make everything better person, and the one he wants all the time. I discipline him, I support him, and yes I have to be the mean mommy here and there….but kids need that, crave that even, and they grow much happier & content with that sense of normalcy, that is from structure.

So, makes me wonder if maybe I am supposed to be in this little man’s life. Like, God wanted another influence, another Village member, to help, to love, to guide, to help raise this wonderful little boy. Maybe, Stepmoms are angels – without wings, and with apron strings, extra special mommy powers, and a little dash of amazing. Maybe, thats why I feel like he is mine, because in a sense he is.