When God Brings You Full Circle
I recently experienced a bittersweet milestone in my life: the 10-year anniversary of my mom's passing. Throughout the day, I stayed fairly well occupied, as I was facilitating two training sessions at work. I often think about the mother-daughter relationship my mom and I had and the mother-daughter relationship I always hoped I would have. Later that evening, God gently reminded me of how easily He can bring things full circle when we least expect it.
When I first learned my mom was sick with a terminal illness, my husband and I had been trying to conceive for nearly five years. After my mom's diagnosis, everything else seemed to be put on pause. While I was still working full-time, my bosses were sensitive to my situation with my mom and generous enough to allow me to have every weekend off so I could make the three-hour (one way) drive down to see my mom every weekend for the duration of her illness.
I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could, especially since I had always longed for a closer relationship with her. We didn't necessarily have a bad or tumultuous relationship, per se; but we also didn't have that “ideal” or "picture-perfect, made for a movie" mother-daughter relationship either.
On our last family vacation, I shared with my mom that I had finally come to terms with the fact that I would not be able to tell her I was pregnant. That I would not be able to experience those mother-daughter bonding moments of sharing details about a pregnancy, giving birth, and motherhood in general. I told her that I had made peace with this fact. That I was still sad about it, but I was OK with it. I can now look back and see how God used that very moment to bring me full circle in terms of a mother-daughter relationship.
Two months after that conversation, much to my husband's and my surprise, we learned I was pregnant. I got to tell my mom in person, a month before she passed, that I was pregnant. I like to think that my mom had some part in this miracle and that she wanted that mother-daughter bond just as much as I did; we just didn't know how to do it and God showed us. He allowed us to have that special moment I had dreamed of long before we knew she was sick. God granted me the miracle of that bond within that moment.
Ten years later, on the anniversary of her passing, God reminded me of the strength of that mother-daughter bond and that I did indeed have it with my mother and am creating it with my own daughter.An article I wrote about my relationship with my own daughter was published right here on Catholic Mom.I didn't know this was the date it would be published but, of course, God did. He must have known how much I needed it on that day.
I am now able to look back to this article, to these words that I wrote about my own relationship with my daughter, about this bond I am creating and know that I did have that bond with my own mother. And God has brought peace to me with it as He has brought it full circle in a simple yet profound way. God is good.
Copyright 2023 Jennifer Thomas
Images: Canva
