Happy Mother's Day

December of 1995 will be a month that I will never, ever forget. How could I? During that month, around the 10th, I almost lost my mother. In all honesty, the whole event is still so surreal. You see, my mother suffered a massive pulmonary embolism that caused her lungs to fill with blood. In a matter of hours, she went from a normal life to a mere shell of a woman lying on her bathroom floor. It is truly a miracle-a God thing-that she is even alive today. In the days that followed that event, our family and friends flooded the hospital day in and day out as we waited to see if she would live.

I was a freshman in college. It was exam week of my first semester. I was rushing home from school to get to the part-time job I had at a local stock broker's office. In my mind I was playing the scenario of going home, changing clothes and quickly getting to work. I had decided to NOT call my mom and tell her about my last exam because I knew that we would talk too long and I would be late. So, in the door I walked and went straight to the phone and called her. I don't know why I did. It was if my brain had not comprehended the whole scenario I just went through.

In hind sight, there is no other explanation other than God laid it on my heart to call her and I had no other option that listen. It was that call that led to the events that would save my mother's life. I have thanked God countless times for allowing me to be my mother's angel that day. After all, she had been my angel for 18 years.

As I sit and think about Mother's Day I could write for hours about how blessed I am to be Ella and Lucy's mom. But not today. Today I want to tell you how blessed I am to be Nancy's daughter.

My mother is the mother I long to be. She is a Godly woman who prays the kind of prayers that you just know God listens to. She is the Christian wife that supports her husband through thick or thin. She loves her children unabashedly and has set such an example of righteous living that no matter how far we may stray, we always know the way back home.

I love my mother so much it hurts. My mother is my best girl friend and a true confidant. She is a wonderful grandmother to my children and a great mother-in-law to my husband. Her ultimate goal in life is to see that her children, her grandchildren and all those around her know the Lord and see Him through her.

3 John 1:4 says "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." This must truly be a verse that my mother could claim as her heart's desire. It's one that I have hanging on a plaque in my own kitchen. It has become important to me because it was important to her.

I thank you, Mom, for instilling in me the values, morals and ethical compass that has allowed me to continually fall on my knees daily to ask God to guide me through the tumultuous road of parenting and being a wife.

Thank you, Mom, for holding my hand as I lost my first tooth, my first boyfriend and then on my wedding day.

Thank you, Mom, for holding my hand as I gave birth to my own children and then patiently guiding me through the first months of motherhood as I struggled to even get my feet on the floor.

Thank you, Mom, for continuing to love me unconditionally like only a mother can.

Thank you, Mom, for holding a crown over my head so that I could grow into it.

Thank you, Mom, for teaching me that good mothering comes from the inside out. You showed me that I have to become what God wants me to be so that I can help my own children learn who they are meant to be.

Thank you,Mom, for showing me that parenting is rooted in God's grace, not my perfection.

And thank you, Mom, for just being you. You grow more wonderful every day. I love you so much.