Mothering at its best

I am in Quincy with my daughter. Actually I just took her to class. But the story is a little bigger than the last two sentences. You see Hope like Megan has a form of autism called Aspegers Syndrome (hope that is spelled right. Argggg! Spelling).  Hope coupled with that has panic attacks.  Last night she was in a large group and she survived it, but afterwards had a really bad panic attack and could not calm down.  She called me and after talking to her for almost an hour I realized she needed more than Mom on the phone. So at eleven o'clock at night I quickly packed myself up and as Meg  took over at home I made the two and hour trek here to take care of my girl.
I realized something driving down here. I don't resent mothering this way. My kids are awesome just the way they are. Yes two have Aspegers and two ADHD.  Who knows what we will find out about Tory as she grows older?  Sometimes life is crazy and sometimes I think I am, but what I realized is I don't mind being different from most families. And I don't mind my kids needing an extra level of parenting that most don't need.  I use to wonder why my kids were so needy. I don't anymore. I understand now and it does not bother me.  All of them are awesome just as they are. It takes me going further and deeper than I ever thought possible. It takes realizing they are going to do things in a different order than most people think is right.  Their accomplishments are different. For Megan it's choosing motherhood first then choosing college. For Rebecca it is still trying to get to adulthood. For Hope it is struggling in doing the path everyone expects. For Peter it is the battle to find a place and struggling to get it right. For Tory it is learning how to fit into a mixed up family.  For Todd it is accepting our family life is different from what he grew up expecting family life to be like.
For me it is realizing that all this time that I was trying to get it right God was laughing because it already was. That is what hit home last night. All this time I kept expecting it to straighten out and look like other families. The reality is I don't even want it to be that way.  I really really like my kiddos just the way they are.  I like being their mother and I know I am just perfectly made to handle being whatever they need me to be! 
I won't do things the way others think I should. Simply, I think differently too. Besides most methods that others use and rave about don't work in our family. We are not textbook by any stretch. My kids are not going to always react 'right' and they are going to make HUGE mistakes. But all of will learn and sooner or later we will get it right and do it HUGE!  I choose today to be their Mom through the good, bad, ugly, imperfect, awesome, and everything inbetween...
We will be close knit, sometimes look antisocial (we are not. Just crowds get a little frightening for some of us and for others of us we just don't like the lime light.), deep thinking, and deep loving.  We are not even perfect. Sometimes I will be a trauma Mama and sometimes people will be amazed. All of these times I will love them just for them. That is my mothering declaration. Now this is Cat out because I have got to go pick up my girl.