The Gift of My Mom
Mom and me on my wedding day!
I hope my Mom is taking a really long, extended lunch break right now. It is her birthday, after all! Today, my mom claims to be turning 39. If you looked at her, you might believe her too. She also claims she’ll be 39 forever. Ok, ya’ll. Don’t buy it! Let’s just say, next year is going to be the big F-I-V-E -O-! But we can keep that a secret.
My mom should take heart. Every year, I just seem to love her more and more. Which means she has to keep getting older, so my love for her can keep increasing. With each new life stage I go through, saturated with her deep care for me, it becomes more and more apparent the gift of grace God has given to me through my mom. Let’s just say my children will probably beg me to “go to grandma’s” once they spend one day with this uplifting and sweet person- My mom!
I am overwhelmed at her persistent love and care in my life. There is no one who has known me in the unique way that she has. Some people you meet at special times in your life, and they are wonderful friends. But there is a unique rarity to the relationship of a mother with her daughter. I don’t know if many women called their mom their “best friend” in seventh grade. Yep, I did. I was a weird one. While most kids try to remove the existence of their own mother once they hit puberty, I was busy writing poems about her and publishing them in my seventh grade poetry collection book. Like I said, I was a weird one.
For some reason, hanging out with my mom growing up was like the BIGGEST treat! Anytime my mom asked me to do anything with her (and still now), it was like someone turned on the Christmas tree lights in a dark room. Even if it consisted of taking commands at the grocery store to go to the cereal aisle, I got to be with mom! Doing anything with my mom was and is one of life’s highest honors for me. Let me recall some of my favorite things about my mom.
Peeing my pants from laughing so hard with her. I don’t know if many people have that memory with their own mom- but I do! What I LOVE about my mom is that when we get together, I get to act however I want! She’s my mom, which seems to give me some invisible rights. I can cry. I can laugh. I can be frustrated. I can be completely out of line. I can be annoying. I can be tired. I can be goofy. I can be hungry. I can need a back-rub. Heck, I can poop my pants if I want.
I can be alone if I need to be. My room can be messy. I can sing at the top of my lungs in front of her. I can throw my keys across the car after sucking at driving with her freaking out in the passenger seat. I can be mean, and I know she will forgive me. I can share my heart with her, however it is on any day. I can call her for no reason. I can go anywhere, do anything, be successful, be a failure, and still- she will be my mom. She will love me and encourage me, and at least TRY to understand me! (I know I can be a tough cookie to understand sometimes.)
My mom brings a light-heartedness to my life, which is seriously something that I think I need. I have one of those really serious, intense, reflective, always deeply thinking about everything personalities, which is a blessing and a curse. When I get to spend time with my mom, I get to take off my shoes, let my hair down, and have fun. Let the world subside and do silly things like raid her closet for cute shoes, purses and jeans. Let’s just say I owe any sense of fashion that I have to the big mama “J” (actually she’s not big at all). How could I be so blessed?
Ok, probably my all time FAVE past-time with Mom is this:
Driving in the car for hours, windows open, blasting Dixie chicks and singing at the top of our lungs. My mom claims she is not a singer, but let me inform everyone that she IS!!! No one can sing “Wide Open Spaces” like mom and me. And she harmonizes like crazy in the car, too! I get my songwriting passion from my dad, and my love for harmonizing from my mom. She also breaks into tap dances in the kitchen for no apparent reason, which is pretty much hilarious. I think that’s why I break into my own version of tap dancing once in a while. I’ll spare you any further revelations of my dancing.
For some reason, singing “Wide Open Spaces” with my mom just seemed to fit.
Some lyrics from “Wide Open Spaces” are …
Who doesn’t know what I’m talking about?
Who’s never left home, whose never struck out?
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone
Many precede and many will follow
A young girl’s dreams no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her she hasn’t get guessed
She needs
Wide Open Spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the highest stakes
One of the funniest memories I have of my mom actually showcases how gracious she is. I was in seventh grade, the year that all young teens, if allowed by mom and dad, experiment with various forms of face paint (a.k.a. makeup). It’s the year you also get zits and want to conceal them. Well, being the blondie that I was (and am), I entered into this phase of thinking that I should draw in my eyebrows. After spending a good thirty minutes too long in the bathroom one afternoon with a dark brown eye-brow pencil, I casually entered the kitchen for dinner as if I hadn’t transformed at all from albino to having huge bushy brown eyebrows. Dad said, “Woah! What’s on your face?” Mom said, “Oh honey, its ok. She’s just experimenting.” Mom always let me go through the various and awkward life stages in my own authentic way. Even the stage where I drew in my eyebrows and it looked ridiculous! I am glad to have outgrown that phase ☺
My mom seemed to have a keen awareness of a girl’s need to explore her own interests, to find herself in this lost world. She was so encouraging to me in all of my passions. She always encouraged me to “Sing my heart out!” And I always did. She gave me room to “make my big mistakes” and learn from them. She was a voice of healing and a promise that someone is praying for me. She even has the courage to talk about her life and mistakes with me too. It teaches me that being perfect isn’t the goal in life. Its walking through messes knowing that “God is never done with you.” That advice has been profound for someone like me.
Something that my mom taught me significantly was how to help and care for other people. I have pictures to prove it. She has spent years training service dogs to be able to live with people with disabilities. Sophie and Marley are two of those lucky pups.
This is Mom and Sophie, the first service dog she ever trained!
Now Sophie lives with this man, Tim. My mom had the courage to give up a dog that she absolutely fell in love with. After seeing Sophie bond with Tim, she said "Seeing the way Sophie loves and helps Tim is so much better than being able to keep her." I don't know how she did it!
Mom, Dad and Sophie in her very professional working vest. Dad was so supportive!
Service Dog #2! Meet Marley!
Did I mention my mom is a phenomenal cook? Seriously. You don't even know.
Mom and Dad. Priceless pic.
My mom just amazes me. You know a blog post doesn’t do justice to how thankful I am for her in my life. Now that I have been married for a little over a year, I am seeing how family relationships change and expand and deepen. Seasons come and go, and though we are always changing, my mom will always be my mom. Today is such a day of celebration. I would not be who I am with out her. And I love her so much!!!
Happy Birthday, Mom!
