Inspiring mothers

I hope you all had a wonderful mothers day.  I felt especially lucky to be able to spend mine with my Mum while she is visiting here.  As Yashar grows, I appreciate more and more what my own mother did for my sisters and I.  It's not that any of us were ungrateful before, but it's more of a realisation of all that it takes to be a mother.  All that goes on behind the scenes - the care, the total refocusing of priorities, the all consuming love, the teaching and cooking and doctoring.  And everything else.

Mothers around the world are doing amazing things, raising their children while being strong, independent women (whether or not they have a husband or partner).  They are overcoming adversity, daring to dream of both being able to raise happy well cared for children and to be personally fulfilled, and all the while doing it their way.   I urge you to take some time to think about the wonderful women around you and what you can learn from them and how we can support each other.

Just this weekend my sister in law opened her own small children's clothes shop.  These are some photos of the first opening day (after lots of time spent renovating, painting, tiling), with plans for a 'grand opening' next week.   Here is one amazing woman and mother!  Always welcoming and caring.  She has been though some tough times but is still strong, independent and positive.    At age 13, she lost her father who died suddenly from a brain tumor.  At the end of high school she achieved excellent results - more than enough to get her into a good University here.  But she chose to follow her religious beliefs and continue to wear a headscarf, which meant that she was not allowed to attend University (wearing headscarves is banned in Universities here).  So instead she found an entry level job in the accounting section of a private hospital and eventually worked her way up to become finance manager of the hospital.

A while after marrying her husband, they decided to have a child - but lost their first baby in the ninth month of her pregnancy.  They tried again and they now have a beautiful little 2 year old girl.    After returning to work for some time, she made the courageous (I think!) move to start her own business so that she could be close to her daughter while still bringing in income for her family and by doing something she enjoyed. 

She decided to use her small savings and take a risk - to go from dreaming to actually believing that she could do it. 

A sneaky photo I took of Tuba, my sister in law, in her new shop!

I am so inspired by her and by the other amazing mothers that I am surrounded by - and I'm guessing a lot of you might feel the same way! A belated happy mothers day to you all!