Having Children

How, not easy, shall I say, is raising children? 'nuff said. Luckily, I've been blessed with children I never knew I would have when I decided to opt out of motherhood. I'm the eldest of 6 in an Irish family. All of my younger sisters and brothers except for Anna Marie, my Irish twin who is 13 months behind me, were like my own babies. Then Anna Marie had her own daughter, Christine Marie aka Chrissie, and our family's first grandchild, at 17. She named her after the two of us. She's Anna Marie and I'm Mary Christine. I'm also her godmother. She really was my baby, and my sister still refers to her as "ours". Three years ago I became a mother in earnest (that's when they actually live with you) to a three and a half year old grandson. This event cooincided with menopause and to say it was life changing is an understatement. Much of it was not even fun but I did fall in love with the kid. Here's the little boy, Andrue (on right) with my friend rdl's son Luke. Once again, like the sisters, raising the kids together :D