Day 2 (written on 06/20)

Today is my mom’s 60^th birthday, and she is the blessing I want to count on this day.  Much of my life has been about working with children whose mothers were not available to them for one reason or another.  Just as I am not a perfect mom, neither is my mom, but she has always been there for me.  She loves me, and I know that beyond a shadow of a doubt.  She wants the best for me, wants me to have more than what I deserve.  I know if she could hand me the moon, she would do it.  I am so blessed!

I am grateful for the lessons she has taught me, both by warning me about my bad choices and negative behavior and by encouraging me in the good.  She has always been my cheerleader, cheering me on to do things I wasn’t sure I was capable of or even wanted to do.

I remember my junior year of high school.  It was a tough year because I transferred schools just before that year.  I was struggling with not being accepted into the National Honor Society (I know, I’m a nerd).  I had the grades, but I was new to the school, and many of the teachers did not know me.  You had to have teacher recommendations.  I remember going home (actually to the group home where mom was subbing as house parent) the day I found out I did not make it and just lying on her bed and crying.  She was so upset for me that she wanted to call the school and fight for me.  I would not let her, but she did hug me and let me cry and cheered me on for the next year (I did make it senior year).

As much as I often complained, too, she took me on many adventures (mostly in the form of camping, which I still do not like).  I think it was through these adventures that I became courageous and headstrong.  When I was in 5^th grade I think, mom decided we needed to take a trip together.  The world was different back then, but I still cannot believe we did what we did.  We crossed over the Mexico border (just the two of us) and stayed in some small motel.  We shopped, neither one of us knowing any Spanish, went on walks, played games, and had a super time.   When I was in high school, we frequently went camping in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE.  I remember filtering water in the river to drink, going on long hikes up to elevations that gave me such intense headaches, stopping at berry fields along the way and picking berries, running across snakes and other not so fun creatures.  Though I don’t like to camp, I do like hiking and reaching peaks (literally and figuratively).  I still get that same feeling of accomplishment as I remember feeling the first time I hiked to the top of a mountain.

I also think it is through my mother that I grew to love others, especially those with less than what I have.  My mom was always helping others, either foster children or homeless people or the elderly or our neighbors, whoever needed her.  I remember making too much food at Thanksgivings and Christmases and taking the food to homeless people under bridges.  Brent and I now take our children to feed and love on our friends without homes.

Mom, if you ever read this, I love you, and you are such a blessing in my life.  I could go on and on with this list, but these are the things that stand out right now.