A Mother's Love

 I recently found this photo of my mom and I from 1979...

way back when I was a senior in high school.

I was 17 here, Mom was just 34.

Yeah, people asked us if we were sisters. A LOT!

I never liked that, but my mom LOVED it.
Fast-forward about 20 years, and people were saying it about ME and my daughters.

And I LOVED it! LOL

The thing is, both Mom and I were young mothers.

Not by plan, but circumstance.
And neither one of us would change it.

While other girls our age were heading to college, 

entering the job market on an upward climb to a stunning career,

or just laying on a beach in Southern California,
we were raising babies...

loving them,

teaching them,

guiding them,

and working as hard as we could to help them

grow into strong, capable, happy, well-adjusted people

who never questioned their mother's love for them.

That's a tall order for a young girl to fill.

But she did it, and I did it.
Not perfectly, of course.
Not without mis-steps, back-steps, side-steps,
and falls flat on our faces.

We did the best we could with what we had, and what we knew:
Love.

Our love wasn't always expressed in the perfect way at the perfect time,

and sometimes it was expressed in secret silence that was never seen or acknowledged
(like when money sent for an adult birthday gift was used

to buy a family day at the zoo instead, because those times were all too scarce)
Sometimes love was even expressed in the unhealthy situations we each endured for far too long,

so as to model persistence and faith and hope and strength to our kids.
By the setting aside of pride and personal needs for our children.
The wrong choices can be made for the right reasons.....
the motivation was always love.

I am eternally grateful for the love my mother has for me,

and for the love my grandma - my 'other mother' - showed me all of my life.
I am awed by what my mom went through back in 1962

to have me, to keep me, to raise me
when she was just 17 years old.

Motherhood can hand us more love, more pride, more joy 

than anything else on Earth can give.
(So can 'grandmotherhood'!)
It can also break our hearts into a million little pieces of pain like nothing else can.

My Mom and I have had rough times, and we've hurt one another unintentionally.
(and that 'unintentional' part is important)
But the love that we have for each other has always overcome that pain.

I heard a line in a film preview recently, 

and though it was spoken by the father character,

it embodies what I believe lives in every Mother's heart...
I've added to the original line here because this is what's in MY heart:

"I loved you from the moment I first thought about you.
I love you through thick and thin.
You can hate me, leave me, ignore me, and hurt me,

we can be really angry at one another,

we can not speak to one another...

but NOTHING will EVER change the fact that I love you with all my heart.
That's what my heart was created for: Loving YOU."

Over the past 19 months, my Mom has shown me the kind of love

that is unfathomable. She has saved my life, over and over again.
And having these days to spend with her, to love, and laugh, and live

and make up for the years we lost

is a gift from God that I treasure...

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!