Where Do I Begin? The Most Proud Moment as a Mom

Being the mother of two sons, now ages 17 and 22, I have loads of proud mama stories to tell. Given the task of choosing just one has proven more difficult than I had ever imagined. Which child do I speak about? Which proud moment do I share? There truly are so many I could re-live and put into detail on paper just as if they'd happened only yesterday.

It seems that simply parenting a child in the first place should make any woman proud. To be given a precious, innocent new life to love and cherish and mold should be every parent's primary pride. Beyond cars and homes and success, it's a different pride. A real sense of being proud. The precise second your child is born, you may think there is no other feeling of pride quite like it. All the hopes and dreams and possibilities that you now have the honor of giving through this brand new little life you have just brought forth into this world.

Not only are those first few minutes, weeks, months, years of motherhood some of the most memorable and cherished and noteworthy events to ever enter your life, I have learned that the early years are not the only time of learning and development of a child's life that makes a parent proud. Matching that swelling moment of pride when I first laid eyes on my oldest son, Tony, almost 23 years ago, was the day I "gave him away" to his lovely wife when he married Stephanie last August.

To see him standing up there beaming and I mean beaming with pride of his own, ready to face a lifetime commitment to God, himself, Stephanie and our families, I could not help but admire this man I now saw in front of me. I'm confident that this young man will continue to make me proud well into my golden years of motherhood. He has become a vibrant, strong, determined, hard-loving man and who wouldn't be proud to call him son?