I may not have given birth to you, but you are still my child....

I was lucky enough to have amazing parents.  Not just Margaret & Bill, but also other friends parents who took me in like I was one of theirs as well.  Janet & Graham who lived right across the street from us and made me laugh all the time.  My nickname from Graham was "Katrinka".  He is a huge guy and he is the main reason why I love hockey as much as I do.  Graham was the type of Dad who made ice rinks in their back yard every winter.  Poor Janet would have us in her backyard all winter long.  I remember one of our favorite games was skating as fast as we could, dropping down at the line and sliding into the house.  It was considered a good slide if Janet came out and yelled at us or we heard something fall off a shelf in their bathroom.  How I am even alive to tell you this story is amazing to me ;) lol

Now that I have my own children, I think back more and more about all the "other parents" I had that helped raise me.  Being on the other side of the fence I can see now what Janet, Ann, Gail & JoAnn meant when they would say "I may not have given birth to you, but you are my child."  There are so many children in my life that I truly love as if they were my own.  They make me laugh with some of the things they come up with.  These kids touch my heart when I see how compassionate they are towards others who don't have as much as they do.  I am proud of each and every one of them.  My soccer boys may or may not go on to play HS soccer, but I am grateful that I was able to be in their lives for these few years.  Some of them may go on to run cross country or play football, and I will be on the sidelines cheering them on, because that is what parents do.  We are cheerleaders, doctors, taxi cab drivers and many, many other things.  I may not have given birth to them, but they are my children.

One thing I never thought about when my kids were little p-nuts was how much I would fall in love with their friends.  I have kids who stop by just to see me, even if my kids aren't home.  How cool is that?  I get a kick out of my sons friends when they all come through the door and say "Hey Mom".  I doesn't take much to make my day, and that is definetly one way to do it.  They moment I first saw both of my children, my heart grew more than I ever knew was possible.  Now as I sit back, I marvel at the way our heart can grow bigger every day.  I am blessed beyond measure to have so many wonderful young people in my life. They make me laugh and I treasure each and every one of them.  I may not have given birth to them, but they are my children and there isn't anything I wouldn't do for them.