To my mother

This is the nomination I submitted for my mother that won the giveaway over at Delia Creates. My mother is truly the best person I know. Happy Mother’s Day to her and every mom out there. 

I spent my childhood worrying about what kind of mom I would be. I used to watch my mom in her interactions with us, her six children and the many foster children she cared for over the years. I watched her as she rocked a screaming baby that was coming down from his mother’s addiction. I watched her painstakingly teach his mother how to be a good mom, teaching her to cook and to bathe her baby. I watched her bittersweet tears when she reunited him with his mother. 

I saw her take care of twins that were born months premature due to drug use on the part of their mother, waking up every hour with one twin or another and then still getting up to make us our lunches and send us out the door to school. I watched her love and take care of other people’s children, loving every single one of them every bit as much as she did us. I watched her tote around oxygen tanks for the smaller babies and play and laugh with the toddlers. I have watched her save her own money so even years after many of these foster children have gone home to their parents, she can provide presents for them on Christmas morning and school clothes in August. Without her, many of these children wouldn’t experience the magic of Christmas. I have watched her every night pray for their well being. 

I watch her delight in her children and grandchildren. Now, as I have a child of my own, I realize my mother was not only my guardian angel, watching over me and guiding me, but the guardian angel of almost every child that has met her. She has made me the mother that I am and my one hope for my life is to be as much like my mother as possible. I can’t be with my mother to thank her in person this Mother’s Day, but she and her example are with me every day as I raise my daughter