mamas day

My mother is really one of the most amazing women I know.  And I'm well aware, everyone thinks their mother is the bees knees, no other mother is as amazing as theirs, I get that.  However, I believe mine is an outstanding one.  She's got an amazing story, which makes her even better. 

My parents circa April 27, 1991 at their wedding reception.

(FYI, that hair piece in her hair, became my bridal veil at my own wedding.  Love having such a precious heirloom)

 

 

My mother and father were married in the Las Vegas Nevada LDS Temple in April 1991.  My father had three children from a previous marriage, which my mother loves with all her heart.  Their entire family was sealed together in the Las Vegas Temple, for time and all eternity long before I was born.  I was born in October 1992, to a wonderful family with amazing big sisters and a big brother who watched over and protected me throughout my childhood.  Sure, we fought, like siblings generally do, but their care and watchfulness was unwavering.  My mother taught me what unconditional love means.  She has unconditionally loved my siblings and I through all of our trials.  All four of us kids have made some really, really, really questionable decisions, borderline stupid sometimes.  However, even when mom didn't agree with us, she gave us unwavering  support. 

 

The whole fam damily, Easter 2008

 

My mother taught me how to listen to the spirit.  In her single years, she traveled around the country working at various horse ranches as a ranch manager/veterinary technician.  Her life is continually led by the promptings of the spirit.  If my mother feels a prompting, action is taken immediately.  When she was preparing to go back to school and moving back to Salt Lake City, UT, she felt prompted to move to Overton, NV (a tiny, tiny little town) and care for her Uncle's horse ranch located there.  Moving their made absolutely no sense, but the spirit prompted her so she packed up and moved to Overton.  While managing her uncle's farm, she began working for a local veterinarian.  Later, she met my father.  If she hadn't followed that simple prompting, none of my siblings nor I would have ever had the privilege of being her children.

My mother taught me what it means to be a true friend.  If my mother even suspects someone needs help, she will go to the ends of the earth to ensure they are taken care of.  We joke and say she is almost "charitable to a fault."  Even sick and tired, she will give whatever she can to whoever is in need.  Friends care for one another, not just in a superficial sense, but in a deeper way.  My mother truly knows how to love as Christ loves, unwavering and unyielding.  For example, the day before my wedding, my mother was violently ill.  She was so sick.  However, the next morning she picked herself up, took some medicine and participated fully in the entire wedding day.  She helped plan things, she helped get me ready, she did everything regardless of how much she was hurting and how ill she was.  Then, on my honeymoon when I got the same terrible flu, my poor husband didn't want to leave me alone in such a state.  So my mother, still recovering from how incredibly sick she was, went to the store and bought crackers, soda, Gatorade, medicine, even pajamas for me and brought them to our little bed and breakfast.  She gives, even when she is in desperate pain, even while she is recovering from eye surgery (like right now!), even when she is on the verge of being in the hospital, she will continue to give. 

My mother is the most inspiring woman I know.  There are so many other women in my life who helped shape me into the person I am today and acted as mother figures in my life.  My grandmothers, my aunts, my teachers, my church leaders, my sister, countless others and of course, I have my wonderful mother-in-law who has been such a lovely, welcoming, beautiful woman and treats me as one of her own children.  Needless to say, JD and I have both been blessed to be raised by amazing women. 

 

So today, JD and I are so grateful for our mothers.  The ones that raised us and the ones that influenced us.  We're so grateful for you.  I can only hope that whenever I become a mother, I'll be half as wonderful as you all are.

P.S. I got Wreck-It-Ralph as a mother's day present from the hubs because, eventually, I'll be the mother of JD's kids.  SCORE!