"Are you Megan's daughter? You look JUST like her!!" This statement always makes me smile. As I've grown older I get told more and more often that I am like my mom, and nothing could make me happier! My mother is my biggest role model, and to be told that I look and act like her is one of the best compliments I could ask for. I believe with all my heart my mom is beautiful from the inside out, and I think anyone who knows her would agree :)
Mom, as I think back on all the Mother's Days we've celebrated throughout the years, I can hardly believe how quickly time has gone. It seems like just yesterday I was a little girl, leaning on the bathroom sink watching you put on your makeup, pestering you to braid my hair, or begging you to let me turn your kitchen upside down with my latest baking project. I've shared every stage of my life with you! My first steps, my first words, my first book, my first job, my first date, my first day of nursing school, my first day of my new career...Through all the ups and downs, highs and lows, laughter and tears, you have never failed to be right there to support me through it all.
I have been far from the easiest daughter to raise. When I was a rambunctious toddler, you tell me how I would ask you which outfit I should wear. "Purple, or pink, Mommy?" You would patiently reply, "I like the pink!" "Okay, then," I would reply, "I'll wear the purple!" Your never-ending patience is beyond my understanding, and I frequently look on it for encouragement when my own gets tested to the breaking point! As I've grown older I've learned to pay a lot more attention to the input you give me. You are rarely wrong, and I have come to appreciate your wisdom and advice more than I can express.
The Bible is full of so many beautiful verses describing the tender love and fierce devotion of a mother. I've seen this same faithfulness play out every single day in your life, and it has been my example and guide as I pray to become a mother myself someday.
Isaiah 66:13: "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you."
Proverbs 31:26: "She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue."
1 Peter 3:4: "You should be known for the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God."
3 John 1:4: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth."
I think one of the biggest lessons I have learned from you is contentment. Mom, you had so many opportunities when you married Dad, yet you took hold of the calling of motherhood and pursued it passionately. I remember Dad telling me when I was younger that he could not think of a more difficult or important job than the one you undertake each and every day. You somehow manage a household of eleven, loving and supporting your adult children, teenagers, high school, middle school, elementary, kindergarteners, and preschoolers. Supporting a big family in so many different phases of life is no small task, but you manage it beautifully. Elisabeth Stone once said, “Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” You have not one, but nine hearts walking around outside of you! The courage and indescribably difficult work this requires simply demonstrates the devotion you have to each of your children.
Mom, you've taught me what it is to be a mother. To be a mother is to give without expectation. To be a mother is to selflessly sacrifice. To be a mother is to work in silence, without the flash of a camera or a surge of applause to recognize your efforts. To be a mother is to be a multitasker, meeting a thousand needs at once. To be a mother is to feel the emotions of those closest to you, taking them upon yourself. To be a mother is to love fiercely, lead faithfully, and pursue unreservedly. To be a mother doesn't mean you will always have it all together, but it does mean you will always be there whenever your children need you most.
Mom, I couldn't write this post without acknowledging the four beautiful souls who you have never been able to hold. I have seen the agony of grief and pain that has gripped your heart too many times when that life inside you has faded away. You captured this pain when you wrote about the loss of your third child in this way, "Yes, my desires had been crossed and my heart had been broken, but I trusted that God would restore what had been lost. I can’t pretend to understand the suffering of so many others –my sisters who have been deprived the blessing of motherhood, have cradled a still born child or watched their little girls lose their battle against cancer. The only explanation I have for the tender strength of these women is that, with unimaginable pain and loss comes grace beyond measure." I've seen that grace work in your life, Mom, and with it has come a breathtakingly beautiful growth in your heart, a rich, pure empathy, and a heartfelt compassion and understanding for those around you who are suffering in their own ways. Through your own loss you point others to the unfathomable truth of God's love for us and the assurance that "the God who bottles every tear [we] shed in this life will someday wipe away the very last one."
When we were little we loved sitting on the couch with you and flipping through old family albums. I always loved hearing about your adventures prior to meeting Dad. Aidan commented, "Mom, you had a pretty big life!" Connor was quick to follow up with: "But then you married Dad and got to babysit for life!" Babysitting for life is certainly not an all-encompassing job description, but it does go to show where your priorities lie! You are never happier than when you are caring for, laughing with and making memories for your children. This life may not be glamorous, but it is the most fulfilling, selfless, breathtakingly difficult job I can imagine!
As I have moved away from home and begun my own career, I have continued to share my heart with you and lean on you for the love and support I know I still need and cherish. There is never going to come a time when I am too old to turn to you when I need some motherly advice, a listening ear as I vent a little about a hard day, or a shoulder to cry on when it feels like my world is falling apart. I know I don't tell you every day how much I appreciate you and everything you do for me and our family, but I hope you know today how much we cherish you. Though I can't be with you in person today, I want you to know I love you so very much! Happy, happy Mother's Day!
“Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.”
“A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.”
"A mother's hug lasts long after she lets go."
"Motherhood: All love begins and ends there."
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