Rebirth of Priceless

By Elle Cooper

The Rebirth of Priceless is a long-awaited collection of advice Elle Cooper has shared with her children over the years. Rebirth of Priceless is not meant to serve as a know-it-all guide to parenting. However, its contents can assist in healing relationships between mother and child. Rebirth of Priceless' use of the word mother is not solely defined in the biological sense. It takes more than birthing a child to be a mother. If you are raising a child, consider yourself a blessing to this challenging, yet rewarding journey. This book was written to give hope, encouragement, love, and inspiration to anyone raising children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cayelle Publishing LLC
• Release date: Apr 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781952404849

Book preview

Let’s start with a couple of questions. And no, this is not a riddle. What do we always hold on to? What cuts us so deep, but heals us completely? Think about it. Let the questions marinate before moving forward. Have you thought about it long and hard, or did you cheat to quickly get the answer? No problem. I understand that you want to get to the meat of this book’s purpose. The answer is: Our words. Words are powerful, and they leave permanent imprints throughout our lives. We all learned this early on in our toddler years, if not before. I have composed this book full of advice, suggestions, and valuable information, which I have planted within my children. No, I don’t have the perfect relationships with my children. My daughter is at a point in her life where she chooses not to accept the wisdom I have to share. It took me a while to accept and to just be here and exist until she is ready. My daughter had given me a directive to love her and only give advice when she asked. After me being the one to dictate, discipline, and direct for over eighteen years, it was my turn to take a backseat.

Every mother hopes the relationship with her children will be stellar, unbreakable even. I realized my way was no longer going to be the only way. Just as I had to learn from my choices, so must my children. After a child turns eighteen, they take on a personality all of their own. They can no longer blame you for what paths they decide to take. And as parents, we must let go and allow them to tread those paths, even if they want to do it alone. However, there are steps to moving forward and letting go of past pain in any relationship. None are exempt. I can only do my part and ask for forgiveness from God for my mistakes, the other person for forgiveness based on any hurt I caused and move forward, even if forgiveness has not been accepted from the other party. I humbly wait for the other person, children included, to also do the same. A relationship is created and maintained by two people.

Today, I am going to help you pass on a gift of communication to your children. Not because I have years of licensed experience, but because I have years of parenting experience. That makes me qualified to assist others in developing and bringing forth healthy relationships with their children. Some might even imply how I could even write this book while my daughter and I are at odds. I say in response: It is because of those odds that I am able to write this book. I volunteer this personal information to you so that you may have a peek inside my window of imperfection. I, in no way, want to be mistaken for glamorizing motherhood. You don’t just put on ice skates and start gliding across the ice. You fall on your face, knees, and backside. You endure through all those cuts, bruises, aches, and pain. It took me a while to accept this statement: I am a great mother and I do the best I possibly can for my children with every ounce of my body. Today is the day I move forward from doubt.

Time to cut to the chase …

I had my first child when I was fifteen. Oh my goodness, was I petrified! Tears well up in my eyes even now when I think back to the scariest time of my life. I had no experience. I was ill equipped to handle such a grown-up task. I was not raised in a two-parent home. Barely knew my father. And although the dynamics of my relationships with my parents have changed, back then life was difficult for a teenager, especially one in my position. I remember the day I ditched school to catch the bus to the doctor with one of high school friends. She was the first one, aside from my sister, who I told I was pregnant. When we arrived at the local county hospital, I filled out the paperwork and took the pregnancy test. It seemed like a lifetime passed while waiting for the nurse to call me to the back to read the results.

LaShelle Washington?

Finally! I thought. I can now get this nonsense of me being pregnant settled and still make it back to school in time for my mother to pick me up. As I watched the nurse toss the pregnancy test into the trash, my heart was relieved. Don’t get me wrong. I have always thought babies were blessings, but I was just a baby myself. She bent over to take the pregnancy test back out of the trash. And there it was again; the rapid and panicky heartbeat I tried to escape.

She then said, "Oops. You are pregnant."

I felt even her disappointment, and I wondered if she could hear my heart beating through my chest. She gave me a packet of information and sent me on my way. I didn’t expect her to sit there and console me as I cried, but I wanted her to. I feared going home.

We caught the bus back to school. She went her way, and I went mine.

They say that when you are dying, your life flashes before you, but I beg to differ. Sitting on that hard, concrete wall waiting for my mom to pick me up, flashes of my life rapidly took over my mind. I tried to figure out how I would tell her I was pregnant. How does a fifteen-year-old child tell her single mother of four that she’s pregnant? That there was another mouth to feed? There was no easy way.

What I can’t recall is how long I waited in between that day and finally mustering up the courage to tell her, but it was no easier the day I confessed to my mother then when I found out. I knew I would fight a constant battle. I knew nothing about … well, life.

I still had to be told to clean my room, wash the dishes … yet, here I was, expecting a baby, adding to my list of responsibilities. I was still making wish lists for Christmas out of the JC Penney’s catalog. However, I knew one thing: I wanted to keep my baby. I knew my child would love me, even when I believed no one else would. I would never have to feel alone again.

One night, I knocked on my mom’s bedroom door and asked to speak with her. It took her a minute to come to my room. There I sat on my bed, shuffling coins from a jar as a distraction. It was just a way to avoid looking at my mother as I told her the news.

Mom – I’m pregnant.

No Shelle, not you …

Her response sits with me to this day, because I could hear how disappointed she was with me. Her ambitious, 3.8 GPA, honor roll, the-world-is-yours daughter was pregnant and now an added number to one of the biggest statistic pools ever created.

I had many hurdles during parenthood. We will leave that for another book at another time. You always hear people say, Parenthood does not come with a manual. It truly does not, and many mistakes were made. However, through it all, I gained wisdom. I talked to people, read, learned from my choices, and my children have turned out to be wonderful children