MERIDIAN —     There are many ways to describe what makes a mother.

    A mother can be a woman who conceives, births and rears a child. A mother can also be a woman who becomes parent to a child through adoption. And a mother can be a woman who takes on the care of another's child through guardianship.

    Charlene Anderson is a mother in all those respects.

    "I'm really not special," said Anderson, who is mother and guardian to seven children. "I'm not doing anything that every other mother in the world is doing – and that's loving their kids and doing the best they can."

    And though modest about her unique parenting status, Anderson's devotion to her children is unquestionable. When talking about them, she beams – the true sign of a mother.



Motherhood: Lifelong ambition



    As a child, Anderson wanted to have eight children.

    "I loved the TV show 'Eight Is Enough,' I thought it looked like so much fun," she said.

    However, as she became older, the number was much smaller – one. Unfortunately, conceiving one child was difficult for Anderson and her husband of 19 years, Dr. Scott Anderson.

    "We'd tried in vitro (fertilization) three times and while I'd gotten pregnant, I'd had miscarriages," she said. "The emotional toil was becoming way too much."

    Her husband has two sons — Dillon and Jackson. Dillon lived with them, however Anderson wanted another child. So the couple decided to adopt.

    "A friend had a friend who'd adopted two boys through an adoption agency run by an Episcopal minister and his wife in Shreveport (La.). The other mom called the minister and he called me and told me about a birth mother," she said.

    Six weeks later, the couple were on their way to Shreveport to pick up their newborn daughter, who they named Allison Hines.

    It's not uncommon after years of trying to conceive and then adopting a child that a woman becomes pregnant. Three years after adopting Allison, Anderson learned that she was pregnant.

    "My husband was in Africa on a hunting trip when I found out," she said.





"I cried because I couldn't call him to tell him ... And I didn't want to be pregnant again because I'd lost so many."

    But, in the words of Anderson, "this one took," and nine months later the couple welcomed Maddie Lynn.

    A few months later, Anderson's sister, Synova, died and the couple assumed guardianship of her sons, Benjamin and Christopher Foster. They lived with the couple for four years.

    Anderson's sister also had a child named Holton from her second marriage. When his father became unable to care for him due to illness, the couple assumed guardianship of him as well.

    "I'd said I wanted to eight kids ... you know what they say, 'Be careful what you ask for," Anderson said, laughing at the thought.

    Motherhood – from all aspects – has been beyond her expectations.

    "It's a lot busier than I thought," she said. "But I love every minute of it."

    The kids lead very active lives. Anderson describes Allison as "The Mini-Mayor of Meridian," because "she does not know a stranger," she said. Allison is a cheerleader at Lamar School and plays tennis. Maddie rodeos, which requires she and Anderson being on the road a lot. And Holton is on the golf team at Lamar.

    Having experienced various aspects of motherhood, Anderson said there is no difference in her love and devotion between her adopted daughter and her biological daughter.

    "There is none," she said. "The only difference is that I didn't give birth to Allison."

    And though she is not the biological mother of the children of her husband and her sister, Anderson said she is still their mother.

    "I don't feel the need to be called, 'Mom' to be a mother," she said. "And they have mothers. In the case of my nephews, I always talked to them about their mother, I wanted them to remember her."

    She attributes much of her success as a mother to another mother – hers.

    "If you are fortunate enough like I am to have a great mother, you can get a lot of inspiration from her," she said. "My father died when I was young and my sister and I lived a very modest life. But I didn't feel neglected; mom was a mom and dad for me. As far as love, I had everything I needed."

    Anderson is now enjoying another aspect of mothering – being a grandmother.

    "Dillon has a son, Wyatt. Although I'm not able to spend as much time with him as I would like – I'm still raising children – I love being a grandmother ... I've got my kids and my grandson, I couldn't be happier."