On a day like yesterday my son turns 21 years old.  At 8:45 a.m. on the morning of July 31, my son was born in the operating room of a clinic in my city during 2000.

When my obstetrician took him out of my uterus the baby did not want to cry. The anesthesia had made him very depressed. I was about to turn 40 years old and my termination of pregnancy was by surgical method.

After a short period of time, which at the time didn’t seem so short, and with some maneuvers by the pediatrician, my son was able to cry for the first time. He had what is clinically called a double circular cord. In other words, my baby's umbilical cord was wrapped twice around his neck.

But after that first time he wouldn't stop crying, he cried a lot. The booming sounds, loud music, loud banging and shaking would make him flinch and start crying again. He had a loud crying tone so it would make anyone near him despair.

After two weeks of life he started crying every afternoon from 3pm to 5pm. I never knew why he cried so much, so repetitive, so loud. No matter how hard I looked for the cause I couldn't find it.

He was not hungry, not sleepy nor cold, his diaper was dry, the weather was neither hot nor cold. But he just cried, I left for my plains a few days and there a friend helped me to keep the child quiet to avoid crying but he remained like that for a few more days. Until little by little he started to stop crying and my heart calmed down too.

But that's how my story with my son began. He was a very giggly child. He always laughed, played, ran, enjoyed his childhood by playing his pranks.

I always celebrated his birthdays. He loved going to MacDonalds, but then when he was 5 years old he got sick to his stomach and he got gastritis from a known bacteria, Helicobacter pylori.

They did an endoscopy. He got his medical treatment and finally no more gastritis and no more MacDonalds, this last part made him incredibly sad.

My son and I have been through many circumstances in life. We have traveled many places where I had to move to continue my profession.

We have made our own way in life. His father, after some disagreements that occurred before I was pregnant, decided to leave him and I decided to then change my life. I agreed to stay with my son forever and that's how he and I have lived, with one counting on the other. 

After many difficulties in life we have lived through and we have overcome them together, today he is a good friend. We are friends even though he knows who makes the rules, but whenever he has needed to consult with me about his difficulties he has not hesitated to come and tell me.

I have never dreamed of having someone better by my side. I am a very demanding mother, I am very critical and I am an implacable judge. He has been able to carry my character, he has put up with me so much in the terrible times we have gone through in life, he dares to give me advice even though he is only 21 years old.

He tells me that even though I "like the sound of my voice" when it comes to giving him advice, he still accepts my outlook on life, of the advice for the situations he is going through and of the advice he could use to get through a difficult situation.

To like the sound of my voice means to him that I dwell too much on the details and I prolong my explanations too much on the way to solve the difficulties that arise.

He is my beloved son. He is a good student, he is intelligent although he doubts it, he has many abilities that he himself has not yet explored because he sets his own limits. That is why my recommendations are always long. I want him to find his way. In the time that God has given me to be with him, I want him to remember every moment in which I explain for looong periods of time and that it will help him to resolve many conflicts that he will encounter.

I always inject him with my positivism although with my feet on the ground, because he still doesn't know the difference. I talk to him about the presence of God in our hearts. Knowing that we have that great strength within us that tells us we are never alone. Even though physically you can see that you are.

I have planted in his heart the seed of humility, of compassion, of solidarity, of the value of friendship. He is my beloved son, the best thing of my life. He is much better than I ever thought myself, although he doesn't believe it himself.

He is a boy who has lived through me, who doesn't yet know his potential. But he will get to know them now that he is about to finish his studies at the university and will have to see for himself how far he can go and I know that he will do very well when his self-esteem increases because his capabilities are many.

This is why in my previous post I took him to buy a few things he needed. He picked out a few. We were very limited by the fact that we just paid his tuition for his second to last semester of college and that is very expensive. If that hadn't decreased our income he would be on more expensive gifts, but we'll get there.

He now has a job offer where it’s very helpful that he can speak English at a certain level. He doesn't know if he’s getting it yet but it’s his second stepping stone to success.

 Because his first step was to learn English and this opens many doors for Spanish speakers.

With his first job and its accreditation, the next semester will be financially secured, his thesis, his preparation for new job opportunities in European or Northern countries. His imagination will be the limit.

He is my greatest pride. He is the cause of all my efforts since more than 21 years ago. It was the best decision I made in my life, because he was not an accident. It was a conversation I had with my heavenly Father and I asked him to grant me on that date my son just as he sent him to me.

When at the ultrasound the obstetrician made a mistake and told me it was a female, it was not that I was disappointed but at the moment I told God…

"May your will be done and not mine, but I preferred a boy and so I asked for it. But if you say it is a female that you send me, I receive it with all my love."

After a few months and a lot of female baby shopping, at 7 months another obstetrician told me that she was my friend and saw me on the ward. Then in a playful way she told me that the child in my belly was male. To which I replied, that the baby was female.

She then says to me...

"When you get off your shift, come by my office and I will prove to you that it’s a boy".

And so I went to her office and it was just as she said.

My obstetrician was wrong.

My baby was the boy I asked my Father in Heaven for, and when he was born he had the physical characteristics I asked for. He was not limited in any way.

He is the greatest thing I have in my life. He blows out of the water any and all achievements I have ever had in my life. Thank you Father for the great son that I have and that you have allowed me to have as a friend.

Happy birthday to my eternal love. May God always find grace in your life and guide it as He has guided mine.

…And this is the story I promised you when I wrote my previous shopping trip post.

I'm @gertu13 from Venezuela to the world.