Dear Mom,
It's true. Mothers deserve so much more credit than they actually get. We honk and toot your horn all day long, but sometimes the words we say seem dry with no true raw and real meaning behind it. The truth is, just as it is when we are in love, we can't seem to come up with the words to express to the person that we love. We just love….. that's just the way it is. Perhaps its the same with our relationship with God. His power and love is so incredibly big that it's literally impossible to put into words. We just love….. that's just the way it is. I'd like to think it's the same way for you, as my mother. The magnitude in which you've loved and cared for me the past 23 years is unfathomable (maybe because I'm not a mother) but I just love you…..that's just the way it is.
I'm not even going to try to put together an eloquent sequence of words that beautifully flow and move you to tears. It's not possible. I'd beat myself over it for weeks trying to come up with the right lines and phrases to portray your strength, bravery, wisdom, and radiant joy.
For the past 8.5 months I've traveled to many different nations, walk down roads of brokenness, given hundreds of hugs, laid hands for prayer over the sick and weary, lived among the poorest of the poor in far out villages, and experienced some of the highest of highs and lowest of lows. I've met orphans with no home, watched teenagers with my own eyes walk into the bars to sell themselves off for the night, I've met children who would get beat by their mother before they could come to church, and see children whose mother can't send them to school because she can't afford a $5 uniform for their child.
I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I am who I am because you loved me. I am who I am because you've taught me to be brave when you're only option was to be brave. I am who I am because I've seen you kneel before you're father in Heaven when there was nothing left for you to give. I am who I am because I've watched you battle cancer and countless surgeries with a spirit filled with Joy. I am who I am because you listened to my dreams and believed in me while I lived those dreams out loud. I am who I am today because you loved me, and I hope I can keep loving you half as well as you have loved me.
I'm happy to call you mother and friend. The countless hours of bleacher butt that you accumulated with 19 years of dance recitals and competitions, dozens of mother daughter pedicures, tons of road trips from state to state, the girl power we proved when we moved me into dorm rooms and college apartments, the rants of venting and glasses of wine we share on the deck as the sun is setting, the church services we've sat and cried through, the times in life I'd call you crying my eyes out because I wanted to quit and give up, the milestones we've celebrated, the incredible hardships we've endured, the hours of trashy reality TV we've sat through, the bowls of your famous stove popped popcorn we've devoured, the long dog walks we've shared, the countless hours we've spent wandering the isles of Target, and (I can't believe I'm saying this) the times you ask me to pull your finger in front of my friends…….. it doesn't go unnoticed.
I appreciate you. I love you mama bear ….. and that's just the way it is.
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I made this video for my mom before I left for The World Race. Watching it after 9 months of being apart will give ya a few tears! It's only fitting to include this video in with my mothers day tribute to my momma 🙂
