Mother's Day 2011 & My bonus kids

You know, I truly was dreading Mother's Day this year.  It was hard, don't get me wrong.  I was very emotional off and on most of the day, but I made it through it.  I keep saying that I don't feel like a mom and I still don't, but I do want to say that I am still a bonus mom.  I'm not referring to all my bonus kids I have throughout the military and Chad's friends, but I'm talking about my original bonus kids.  Candi, Nathan, Tia, Alex, and Trevor.  They always do a great job of including me and remembering me all the time and even more since Dec. 1st.  They have really stepped up and made sure they made me feel important and loved.  I can't put that kind of gratitude into words.  I don't know if I will ever get that "I feel like a real mom" feeling back, but I do know that I am a bonus mom to so many, but especially to 5 amazing kids/young adults.  I'm so thankful to have them in my life and none of this would have been possible, of course, without their daddy.  I'm very blessed to have Tebo in my life and the love of his children and I will forever be thankful of that.  They are all very good kids and they work hard and they love hard.  They have huge hearts and would do anything for anyone at any time.  That is good character and it just shows me how they were raised.  I hate we don't see them as much as we would like, but we are fortunate enough to have Candi and Nathan right here locally now so we can see them any time we need to.  I probably talk to Candi almost every day either on the phone, text, email, or walk down and see her at work, but it's nice to know if we need our "kid fix" we can go to their house across town and see them.  That's a nice feeling.  We have Tia and Alex (who is an honorary bonus kid right now until he makes it official) coming in town the weekend of Memorial Day.  We haven't had them just all to ourselves ever so that will be a nice treat.  We just plan to kick back and relax.  We were fortunate enough to have Trevor live with us for two years here in AR and that was nice.  I know Tebo absolutely loved having him here every day and getting to participate in daily activities with him.  I know he misses that and I hate that for him, but Trevor is where he needs to be right now for him and that's the most important part.  He is in high school and it would be very hard not to graduate with the friends he has known and been around his whole life.  All in all we can't complain.  We have amazing kids and an amazing family dynamic and as dysfunctional as it may seem to some it works for us.  :)