Happy Birthday, Mom!

Recently, a friend of mine wrote her mom a blog for her birthday and it was so, so sweet. This is me formally admitting to stealing her idea because I loved it. (Shout out to you Hannah Taylor!)

Anyway, this is my mom:

She's beautiful. She's smart. She's funny(ish). She's a lot of things, but today...she's 48!!!!! I am so thankful that God placed you on this earth 48 years ago and decided to give you the greatest gift ever (me) twenty-something years later after a few mediocre gifts that came beforehand. (Sidenote: My brothers are amazing. I love you guys.) It's crazy how you don't realize all the things that go into motherhood until you become a mother. My kids aren't even teenagers yet sooo yeah, I foresee a much more intense blog post for you in about twelve to fifteen years. Anyway, I just have a few things to thank you for:

Thank you for everything I couldn't possibly remember. Sleepless nights, trips to the park, bubble blowing, dealing with tantrums, diaper changes, not murdering any of us when you had 4 babies at once, hair fixing, stroller pushing, and everything else that I was too young to remember.

Thank you for waking up early on the mornings that I wanted my hair french braided for school and for not beating me with the brush when I complained about it hurting.

Thank you for coming to school for parent lunches.

Thank you for walking us to school and always being there to pick us up (even if you were a little late sometimes...a lot of times haha)

Thank you for not listening to your doctor, refusing chemo, and choosing natural options when you had breast cancer even though they told you you would die and for showing us what it looks like to trust God with your life, literally.

Thank you for teaching me that it's okay to wear makeup when you want to feel pretty, but always telling me how beautiful I was without it.

Thank you for teaching me how to bargain shop and for taking me on all those dreadful trips to Goodwill even though I hated it. Also, for waking me up terribly early for garage sales even though I didn't want to wake up. I always enjoyed it once I could get past the waking up part.

Thank you for letting me get my belly button pierced when I was 14 even though everyone thought you had lost your mind.

Thank you for buying me a straightener because even though you knew I was beautiful, sometimes afros need to be tamed.

Thank you for teaching me to hold my shoulders back.

Thank you for showing me that motherhood is about sacrifice and teaching me that my decisions will always affect more than just me.

Thank you for putting me in dance and always being my #1 fan.

Thank you for signing me up for rec soccer and letting me find how much I love it. And thank you for letting me play high school soccer even though we didn't have a lot of money.

Thank you for teaching me good eating habits and only letting us have snack at 10 and 3 so that we wouldn't think we should constantly be eating.

Thank you of pushing me to tryout for the youth band when Shannon was even though I had no intentions whatsoever of trying out. I thought I didn't sing well and just rode along for fun. You made a comment that I could sing too, Zeb told me to come up there, and here I am 10 years later, still leading worship. Thank you.

Thank you for putting us in Musical Mondays when we were in elementary school and making us be in chorus when we were in middle/high school. Eventually, we all loved it.

Thank you for making me do chores and clean even though I never, ever, ever wanted to.

Thank you of making me change diapers and help take care of the younger kids. Who would've known I'd have two of my own before I even turned 21.

Thank you for taking me to church and making me go to youth every single Wednesday and every single times there was an event. Eventually, church was my second home.

Thank you for not giving up on me when you had every reason to and for praying with me while my heart was broken over a boy even though I know you didn't want to because of everything I had done.

Thank you for not allowing me to date somehow who didn't believe in the same things that I believe in even though I thought Id never forgive you for it.

Thank you for always giving whether that was just a dollar to a man on the street when we barely could afford groceries or a whole car to someone who needed one now that you can do that. Thank you for being a perfect example of what it looks like to give like Jesus whether you barely have anything or you have plenty.

Thank you for sending Patrick Murray to my house with yogurt one random night and for inviting him to my 17th birthday dinner even though I did not want him to be there whatsoever.

Thank you for my wedding and everything that went along with it. It was beautiful and perfect and I loved every bit of it.

Thank you for loving my kids and for coming to every single doctors appointment that I had during both pregnancies. And thank you for the countless times you babysat, especially when it was so that I could work kids church or lead worship at youth.

Thank you for being my best friend. Thank you for all the laughs, hugs, tears, and shoes.

There are definitely about a million more things to thank you for but I figured this is getting long enough. I love you, mom. We aren't always gonna agree. We are gonna be arguing about things for the rest of our lives, most likely. For example, the shirt with the giant leopard print heart on it is, indeed, hideous. But I love you so much and I am forever grateful for everything that you've ever done for me. You're pretty old now though so next year Ill probably just repost this and change the number to 49 and you'll think its the first time you read it so that's gonna be awesome. Anyway, I pray that God will speak to you and lead you and guide you and touch you and teach you this next year more than He ever has and that this will be your best year yet. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And always remember, if you ever feel like you're headed in the wrong direction whether that be in life, down the street, in the grocery store, anywhere...do like Shannon would and just turn around. ;D

"I thank my God every time I think of you."

Phillipians 1:3