Even the Doctor’s office didn’t quite believe me—they did a second test “just to be sure”. I left their office with booklets on baby development and a due date some time after my 46th birthday.

As a believer for over 30 years, my faith has been tested, but never like this. I was amazed to discover that I questioned whether or not I wanted to have this baby.

Where were those thoughts coming from? A little voice said it would be so convenient to get rid of it. I could choose evil or righteousness. Which would it be?

“I am a FREAK, a geriatric Mother”, I screamed at my husband. “Look at how my life is messed up”, I yelled. “People will laugh at me, and when they stop laughing, they’ll pity me.” I kept waiting for the miscarriage I knew would come.

Becoming a mom at any age has it’s struggles, but becoming a mom unexpectedly over the age of 40 is a different kind of challenge! During the past several years, I’ve experienced it “all”, and have decided to simply share a Dave Letterman-like Top 10 list of how truly different my experience has been. Just like me you may be feeling and hearing things like—

1)    Are you the Grandma?

Despite the fact that I’ve been running since 1974 and am as fit and trim as any 25 year old I know, my white hair is a dead-give away for the Grandma question. It happens everywhere I go. My guess is that at least 98.5% of everyone I meet seems to think that I’m my daughter’s “grandma”.

It happened again recently. I was at a City Carnival standing near the bounce house. While waiting in line I heard the Hokey Pokey playing over the loudspeaker. Propelled by a sudden burst of “youthful” energy, I started doing the Hokey Pokey, trying to engage not only my 4 year old daughter, but also some of the other bored kids waiting in line. Some of the kids joined in, and the adults (all at least 20 years my junior) smiled at me. Finally, one of the Bounce house workers looked over at my daughter and said, “Man, your grandma is cool”. They nearly all fainted when I politely and happily announced that I was her Mom!