What's in a Name?

As I sit here watching my beautiful son play outside with his father (aka my amazingly sexy husband), I can't help to think what it really means to be a mom. Beginning with the moment I found out that I was pregnant for the first time and even beyond my last breath, I am forever Mason and Robert's mom. And I as I watch Mason grow and eventually, leave me and Bob to begin his own life and family, I am still his mom. 

But what does it mean to be a mom? Is it enough to just be called "mom" or "momma" or "mommy"? Is being a mom a right or a privilege? As we travel through the many seasons of our lives, so we watch the seasons of motherhood change. Even though Mason needs me in different ways than he did when he was an infant, he still needs me. And so it goes for us even as adults. We may not need our mothers in the same way we did as children, but we never stop needing our moms.

When I was 13, I saw my own mom go through the painful loss of my grandmother. Even as a young teenager, I can still remember the anguish that she went through of knowing that her mom was no longer physically here. So my question has been and continues to remain, "Why in the world would she want me to go through not having a mom when she knows how painful it's been for her?" And is it even worse to know that my mom IS physically here, but no longer wants to be a mom to her own children? I am 32 years old and I still need my mom. Sure, I don't need her in the same ways that Mason does, but I still need her. Why can't she give that to me? I don't think I'll ever understand.