My Mom

Isn't she beautiful?

I know that pretty much everyone on the planet says this, but I really do have the most amazing mother in the entire world. Cliche, but true. The only way you will actually believe me is if I back up such a huge statement with reasons...so here it goes:

- My mom got up every morning before my brother and I went to school to bake us homemade chocolate chip cookies. Every morning. From the time I was 5 years old until I graduated at 17...then kept doing it three more years for my brother.

- My mom also made us lunch for school every single morning for all of those years {well, except for maybe about six days, and that was only because my brother and I wanted to get a taco basket on Taco Basket day in the cafeteria}.

- My mom wrote me a letter every day while I was at camp, and she even started mailing letters several days before I arrived so that I would have at least two waiting for me when I got there. These weren't just your run-of-the-mill plain old letters, either. They were bright, fancy, super colorful notes on awesome paper {different almost every time - some flowers, some striped, some long that she had folded accordion style, some she even wrote on circular paper that I had to turn around and around to read the actual note}. On top of that, at the end of camp she {along with my dad} got up at 3am to drive the three hours from our home town to where we were, to be there at 6am, so they could be at the front of the line ahead of all the other cars to pick us up so we could run to them first and wouldn't have to wait.

- My mom carried a child for her sister. Even those of you who have not had children can imagine how selfless this is, but for those of you who have actually gone through pregnancy and given birth, this act of pure, loving generosity is taken to an entire new level that selfless does not even begin to cover.

- She helped with our homework until way past bedtime, and helped us prepare for quizzes and tests by getting up early with us {sometimes 5am or whenever we needed} to go over the material one last time. She would draw pictures on my back every night before bed to help me fall asleep. She was at every single soccer game, field hockey game, track meet, gymnastics practice, basketball game, dance recital, swim meet and softball game. She did not miss ONE. She truly lives by the ideal of putting others ahead of yourself without stopping to think twice about doing so for a split second. She is caring, kind, thoughtful, tolerant, good-hearted, nurturing, and loving beyond words.

The piece of advice that I try my hardest to always apply and always remember from my mother was actually passed down to her from her grandmother, my great grandmother. It is with regards to your children, and it goes like this -

"Everything else can wait. They cannot."

Dirty dishes, laundry, tennis games, pedicures, lunches with friends - all of that is trivial in the scope of things, and all of it can all wait. Your children cannot.

She even applies this to her role as grandmother, and will drop anything, and I mean anything, to help me with Big Squish at a moment's notice.

Mom, I know we always have been and always will be first in your life and in your heart. Thank you for being you, for being our world. Now that I have a child of my own, I truly know that being a mother is the hardest job in the world and you make it look easy. You are the most wonderful grandmother, but I kind of expected that since you are the most wonderful mother. If I am just half as great of a mom to Big Squish as you are to me, I will have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.

Thank you for teaching me to be myself, even in the face of adversity. Thank you for encouraging me to be true to myself and follow my dreams, and not the dreams others might have for me. Thank you for giving me a caring heart and an open mind. Thank you for teaching me why thank you notes are always important. Thank you for showing me how to be self-confident and secure, and not worry about what other people think. Thank you for teaching me how to stand up for myself and do what I know is right. Thank you for letting me make my own path. Thank you for the lessons you continue to teach me every day. Thank you for your examples, your wisdom, your patience, your guidance, your devotion, your sacrifices, your endless support, your laughter and most importantly, your love.

I love you, Mom. Happy Mothers Day to the most amazing mother in the entire world.