This one time, when I was 15, my parents and I took a trip to Mexico to visit family. On our way back, my mom realized that she had forgotten her green card at home. When we got to immigration, my mom explained her situation to the boarder control man. The man told her that it wouldn't be a problem...if she had a green card, then she would be in the computer. There was just one little problem: my mom couldn't remember what name appeared on her green card. You see, my mom is one of those typical Mexican ladies with like 800 names. She has varied her name throughout her life, making it shorter and shorter, dropping certain names, or adding certain ones, until today, where she only has a first name and a last name. And acutally, her official U.S. first name, as listed on her U.S. Naturalization papers is actually her middle name. (She always hated her real first name.) But I digress. She couldn't remember if she had already dropped her first name when she receieved her green card over 15 years prior to that day. Nor could she remember if she used her married name when she received her green card. INS only gave her one chance at "guessing" her name. And she didn't guess correctly. So we had no choice but to leave my mom behind in Mexico. My dad and I travelled back to the U.S. without her and had to wait 3 weeks until my dad could get more vacation time for us to travel back to Mexico and pick her up. We weren't about to mail her green card to her...the mail system in Mexico is not to be trusted. Who knows what kind of thug would have ended up with her green card and all of her information. We had to bring it to her in person.

I remember during this time, during these 3 weeks, missing my mom immensely. But I was a kid back then. I was used to seeing my mom everyday...talking to her, laughing with her, crying on her shoulder...and during this time she was gone. She wasn't there for me. Not by her choice, of course, but gone nevertheless.

It has now been 10 years since I've lived with my mom. I went to a college that was about an hour and a half away from her and after I graduated and got married, I moved to an entirely different state than where she lives. So I've gotten used to being away from her. Of course I still miss her, but not like I did during those 3 weeks that she was trapped in Mexico.

That is, until she went back to Mexico 3 weeks ago to visit her mom. Ever since the day she left, I feel like I did during those 3 weeks when I was 15. I miss her immensely. I don't know what it is, or why I miss her more than I normally do. Maybe it's because I can't call her while she's there. (My grandma doesn't have a phone.) But it's just weird. It's not like I get to see her, even when she is in the U.S. But now that she's in another country, I miss her enough to make me cry. I miss her hugs, I miss her laugh, I miss her cooking, I miss her love.

She'll be back at home with my dad tomorrow. Even though she'll still be in another state, I'll be relieved to have her back. And I'm reminded that you're never too old to want a big hug from your mom. Because a hug from my mom (or my dad, for that matter) always made everything better.

Labels: I'm all growed up now., Parental Units, Viva Mexico