she....

she is amazing...
she is exceedingly beautiful...
she is stronger than anyone else i know...
she is patient...
she is gentle...
she is always kind...
she has a quiet peace about her...
she's my mom...
i have a new appreciation for my mom...
not that i ever didn't appreciate her, but i didn't appreciate her to her full deserving self until i became a mom myself...
the way she always played with me...
even day after day after day of being at home with me when my dad was away with military responsibilities...
every day...no breaks...no down time...a mom, 24/7...
she never complained...
i never felt like she was frazzled or at her wits end...
i always felt like she was happy and in love with everything that she did with me...
coloring...music...reading...playing outside...cooking...Barbies...Cabbage Patch Kids...
she was almost always smiling...
and even when i grew up and moved past the fun "kid" things, she moved along with me...to shopping... to car pooling... to supporting me in band activities... or playing softball... to gardening... to sitting on the loveseat watching TV... or after school activities... to church... and she worked, full-time...in a business that didn't really allow for much flexibility... and there were times i felt that i wanted MORE of her...but that was only because life just didn't go as smoothly without her hands in everything... and i was selfish... :)
my mom is one of the most special women i know...
and, our path in life, so far, has been wonderful...
that doesn't mean it wasn't without tears, or sadness, or fear...
and see, in the most challenging months of watching her suffer with cancer that ravaged her body and soul turned out to be some of the most powerful...
without those months...of seeing my mom fight for her life, i'm not sure i would have realized the importance of living life...
of having children...
of learning that working as a teacher wasn't "life"
it was just a career...
of learning that i needed to experience motherhood with my own mom by my side...
giving advice...
and looking at her two sweet granddaughters...
one, who i believe, without a doubt, helped bring her to healing and life again after the challenge of chemo and radiation...

giving her the will to live and recover...

i still learn a lot by watching her...
i learn patience...
i learn joy...
i learn to enjoy the little things...
and ignore the big things...
and, every day, i am reminded that, she, is without a doubt,
the most
amazing,
loving,
sweet,
funny,
patient,
wise, and
beautiful women i know...
she's my mom...
and because of her, i'm blessed beyond words...

Happy Mother's Day