I'm starting to look like my Mother does

    

I woke up this morning after a rough night's sleep and decided to check social media before I got going. As I scrolled through Facebook and Instagram, my feeds were flooded with proclamations of love for mothers. Some their own, some not. Some mothers who play mom and dad. Some mothers who must do the hardest thing in the world - be a mother even when they don't have their child anymore. I read their proclamations of appreciation and thought to myself,

"Why don't we thank our moms more?"

I think back to all of the things that my mom has done for me, and I regret to inform you that I don't say "thank you" nearly enough. It's something I need to work on. I'll use this post to express a couple of those:

To my dearest mother,

          Thank you for stepping up for Michael and me when we needed a solid parent. You always worked hard and went without so that we didn't have to. You always made sure we had everything we needed, got to do pretty much anything we asked to, and felt loved and safe at home. Thank you for that.

          Thank you for always being there when we do stupid things. When we dated the wrong person, put our trust in the wrong friends, drove when we shouldn't have, or just couldn't bring ourselves to make the decisions that we knew we needed to make - you were always there encourage us [right after reminding us how stupid we were being]. Thank you for that.

          Thank  you for taking my husband as your own child - for allowing him to live in your home and providing him stability away from his immediate family. Thank you for being supportive of our choices and relationship, while not being afraid to tell us to "slow down" and enjoy our lives. You've always been more aware of what I needed when I needed it. Thank you for that.

          Thank you for washing my hair when most of it was gone. You argued with doctors, paid outrageous amounts of money for medicine, sat in the room when I had my biopsy done and my head shaved. You were my voice when I was so beaten down by my health issues that I couldn't see straight or process the future. Thank you for that.

          Thank you for the vacations, for all of the steak that was "on sale for a good deal, so you bought us some," for the new summer clothes you bought me just this month even though I'm married and moved out. Thank you for taking us to countless sporting events, paying for concert tickets, letting me have a pre-paid cell phone in middle school so I didn't feel left out, and for always buying Ben and me Groupons so we can enjoy nights out on a reduced dollar.

           There are 101 other things I should thank you for; countless other things I should say, but I need to be at your house soon for lunch, so I leave you with this: Thank you for showing me what true love is FIRST in my life. Thank you for always having my back.

                                                                                                                 - Kimmy-da-lee-lee