My wife feels the same way as you; younger than her body. Emotionally, she feels like a kid needing a mom and that she's trying to relive the part of her life when she lost her mother. Somehow, she's hoping to fix whatever it was that went wrong and took away such an important part of a young girls life; her mom.

Her emotions go from anger to self-pity with alot of stops at anxiety and depression in between. I feel for you and your husband because I know how hard it can be for everyone involved. My wife's goal is to mourn the loss of a real mother, recover from the grief, hopefully stronger than she is today. At which point, she will at least know that what she wants is what SHE wants and not something that was forced on her as the result of what she got (or failed to get) from a heartless, abusive woman who gave her little more than birth.