Mother's Day

I want to tell you about my mom.  I want to tell you incredibly impressive she is.  How courageous she is.  How inspiring she is.  How her testimony is shared within our home and by the power of her example.  I want to tell you how much I love her.  How she makes me want to be a better person.  How if only I could spend every day with my mom I would have a better understanding of the world and a more motivated desire to be patient, kind and loving.  I want to tell you how my mom is my very best friend.  How she is an incredible listener and how she always knows just what to say.  I want to tell you how sometimes when I ask her about her day, I wonder how she is still standing.  I am often impressed with her drive to thrive in a foreign country.  Her motivation to carry on through those hard days, those hard weeks, and just those hard times. 

Sometimes I wish my mom could come to college with me.  Not so she could make amazing food for me or clean my apartment, although I am sure she would do both those things without ever once receiving enough thanks.  But so she could give me a hug every day before school.  So I could look up into the crowd during an intramural game and see her there in the stands cheering me on.  So that on those really hard days she would be there waiting and on those really great days she would be wanting to celebrate.

The amazing thing is this, that even miles away she still manages to be a force for good in my life.  Not a day goes by where I don't think of my mother.  I wonder what amazing adventure she is setting out on that day.  I wonder what she would do in a certain situation or I find myself bragging about her enduring qualities to an unsuspecting new friend.  That poor fool has no idea what they've gotten themselves into when they ask about my family.

I love my mom.  At the end of a phone conversation once I told my mom that I loved her most and she stopped and she said something a long the lines of, "Sarah, there is no way you love me most."  And we both paused.  She was very serious about this.  And I remember being stunned because I knew she was right.  My mother shows me and the rest of my family her love for us every day and it is incredible.  I hope some day I can love as she does but for now I am appreciative of her example and role in my life.

So Mom, thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  I love you and always will.  To the moon and the stars and the ocean and back, I love you.