Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child - and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own. ~Robert Brault

Being a mother is an amazing thing.  When you're first handed this little bundle, counting the ten fingers and ten toes and looking them over, it hits you that there is a life you are completely responsible for.  Some people are blessed... like me, there child was born into a family with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends to help raise him.  Others must do it on their own.  Whether a single mom, a stay at home Mom, a work outside the home full-time Mom, being a Mom is hard.  Once you become a Mom, you have been given a gift.  Some cultivate that gift more than others... the gift of loving one more than yourself.

In the quote above, Brault says that a mother can tell when a child needs love. Again, some are better at this than others.  In this situation, I'd have to say my Mom is the best.  As the oldest sibling, my Mom cooked and cleaned and brushed hair and helped with homework.  She wiped tears away from younger siblings and listened to their stories from school.  She cared for their boo-boos. As a teacher, she gave her all every day in the classroom.  She loved those children like her own. She made sure they had food to eat when they were hungry and taught them a whole lot more than reading, writing, and arithmetic.  There aren't too many places where we go where someone doesn't know my Mom, whether it be through a class or a Wednesday night Bible study class.

She had a special group of girls for a long time... her cheerleaders. Kami and I laugh because someone will come up to Mom and she'll hug them and love on them and Kami will say, "Was everyone a cheerleader?".  And she's always had a love for basketball and football players, too.  She's the quiet one patting them on the back and giving them hugs, taking cookies to the den, until game time, that is. Then she's the one ringing her cowbell the loudest.  After the season, she'll take their letterman jackets home and sew on patches for the boys, sometimes more than once.

Mom is quiet.  She's the type that can go unnoticed.  She's the one in the background hanging wall decorations or painting signs or directing people to locker rooms or classrooms.  She's the one in the kitchen making the cake or the punch or cooking.  She's the one who does the dishes and wipes the crumbs off the counter, making sure wherever we are at was as clean as it always was.  Give Mom a piece of fabric and she can make you a dress.  Give her some flowers and she goes all Martha Stewart.  Her picture albums are all organized by year and her craft supplies are in neatly labeled boxes. 

She's also the one who has encouraged those who did not have an encourager.  She's the one who brought home a boy who needed a place to stay, and loved him and raised him as my brother. My Mom is the one who can always be counted on.  If you know her, you know that to be true. 

Not everyone is blessed with a good Mama. I've been blessed with a great one.  With quiet grace and dignity, a smile on her face and her hands full of work, she's placed high expectations on her girls. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.  Thanks for all you've done for me, for my sisters, my son, my friends, all of your cheerleaders and football players and band members and kids.  You're the best... and I really mean that.  <3