The Strength of a Woman

I remember my "nanay" when we were still very young. She used to wake up really early to prepare the family's breakfast. She'd cook rice, fry eggs or "tuyo" or hotdogs if she's got money. She would wake us all up so we can shower, change and eat our breakfast before we could go to school. There's 8 of us and any mom will go crazy if we start complaining all at the same time, when we all start asking for our things at the same time. I know how confusing it is! I only have one son and if my son starts asking me questions or starts complaining about anything, I easily get very cranky. I learn to appreciate the patience and consideration my mom has shown to us. I now understand why my mom used to get very angry when I cry instead of answering her questions. It's unbelieveably difficult, and to imagine EIGHT kids -boys and girls, different ages, different characters different approaches!!! One will really quickly go old. But not my mom.

My mom is very smart. Though there were eight of us, she was able to single handedly looked after us in the absence of my dad. Dad was working overseas. He had to leave to make sure he could send us all to school - the 8 of us!!! And feed us - the 8 of us, and clothe us - the 8 of us!!! And raise us - all the 8 of us!. I don't know how my mom was able to budget the money that she received from my dad. I do not know how she managed to keep us all studying and not go astray. I don't know how she was able to guide us in our studies, knowing she hasn't completed her own schooling. An incredible woman she is, a wonder woman in her own way. Now, we all had finished our studies - the 8 of us! And I still see my mom to be a bubbly, caring woman. It is her patience, her perseverance, her industriousness and her motherly love for all of us her kids, that inspire me as a mother myself. To be able to give, to be able to sacrifice, to be able to serve, even to the point of forgetting one's self. That is the strength of a woman, the great strength of my mom.