Happy Mother's Day!

In my life I've been blessed enough to have had many women who have been mother figures to me.  My mom had me at the young age of 17.  She got married at that age.  Back in those days girls got married young and started their families.  Hence why she had me so young.  She was still a kid herself raising a kid.  She did the best she could considering how young she was herself.  She wasn't without flaws, like most of us moms, but she did the best that she knew how to do from what she learned from the women in her life.  She wasn't blessed enough to have had other great women in her life to be a great example to her like I had.  I'd be writing for days if I included every woman who touched my life in this post so I've just narrowed it down to 3 that I want to recognize here.  My birth mom,  my mother in law/love, and the woman that I affectionately call my spiritual mom.  She has had the most influence in my life.  

My real mom/birth mother.  She fed and clothed me.  She gave me a roof over my head.  She tried the best she could to bless me with things other kids had growing up if she could.  We were a poor family so we went without many things that other families had.  In my immediate family I was the only girl until I was 15 years old so I always had my own room up to that point.  The boys shared a room and once my sister was born we shared a room.  There was four in my immediate family but I also have 3 half sisters.  Mine isn't a perfect family but I still love them all so very much.  My mom was a saint really because at one point she was raising all 7 kids while my dad went off to work and went to the bar every night after work.  She was the one that was always there taking care of us.  She cooked and cleaned and made sure we had clean clothes to wear.  They might not have been in style clothes but they were clean.  Life may not have been easy because there was lots of drama growing up with an absentee father but I know now as a mom myself that she was doing the best that she could do for the circumstances.  The Bible says that those that honor their parents will be blessed.  I do my best to honor my mom and take care of her and help her when I can.  My growing up wasn't the best of circumstances at home because of an alcoholic father and a mother who enabled him but in more recent years I see that she enabled him to keep the peace and so he wouldn't beat her up like he did many times when he'd get angry.  She was trying to keep herself safe and us kids safe too because she didn't want him turning on us either.  Looking back it's amazing how she survived it all.  So today I honor her for doing the best she could knowing that had circumstances been different she could have been even better than she was.  I've learned a lot of life lessons from all that she went through and for that I am blessed because my life is much better because of all that I learned.

Next is my mother in law/love.  What can I say,  she loves her family immensely.  She loves her grandchildren even more.  Tim has been so incredibly blessed to grow up knowing her and being loved by her.  She has been a constant in his life since the day he was born.  My husband's immediate family is a tight knit family.  Everything I have always wanted but never had growing up.  Nan (as we affectionately call her) is a great mom/Nan.  I have been so blessed to know her all these years.   Even though she's in her late 80's and showing signs of dementia and isn't quite the same as she used to be we still love her to pieces.  She and Pop are the patriarchs of the family and with their health issues we know that our time is short with them so we spend every moment we can with them honoring them for all they have been to us through the years.

Then there's Anne.  She's my spiritual/mentor mom.  She has been an absolute constant in my life.  I babysat all of her kids growing up.  I spent a lot of time with her family.  I affectionately call her Mom and her husband, Johnny, dad.  They've been there for me so much through the years.  They have lived Christ in front of me.  They showed me, through their actions, how a functioning Christian family should be.  She showed me the kind of wife/mom that I wanted to one day be through how she lived her life as a wife/mom.  I made many life decisions based on the influence she has been in my life.  My life is what it is today because of how ever-present she has been in my life.  She gave me the love and attention that I always longed for and needed in my life that my own mom just couldn't provide because she just didn't know how to be that.  Anne is an amazing woman of God.  I'm so proud to call her mom and to have her in my life to this day.  Her influence will always guide me through life.  Her love for Christ majorly impacted me as I was growing up.  My love for God is due in great part to her and to dad/Johnny.  I want to always be sure to honor them every chance that I get because without their influence in my life there is no telling where my life would have ended up.  My life is what it is today because of them.  May God always shower down blessings on them because of the example they always are to those that God has given to them to influence in this life for Him.  May this Mother's Day be especially blessed for her because she deserves all the honor that she gets on this day even though she is always so modest about it.  

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's but especially to those who have been a part of my life at some point in my life.  You are all special and deserve recognition today and everyday!  Love and hugs to you all and May God bless you with blessings overflowing on this Mother's Day and everyday!  God Bless!