Happy Mother's Day!

How many times in our lives do we hear it?  How many people say to tell your moma or loved one that you love them and cherish them?  I wonder if I did it enough, and I wonder if she knew.  I loved moma, but we were both very strong willed - maybe me more so than her, but I loved her.  As most parents do, moma made a lot of mistakes, but she loved us unconditionally.  

A lot of things happened in my early childhood that I did not (and still do not) understand, but it turned me away from my mom early on.  I thought I was being pushed off when actually she didn't have the money take care of me.  My grandparents raised me for the most part for the first eight years of my life, so naturally I became close to them.  It hurt moma, but I had no concept of what I was doing.  Looking back, I wish I had, but so many things we going on in my life that I didn't understand and moma wasn't going to hurt me more, so she kept quiet.

There were times when she was so happy that I loved being with her.  She loved us and she tried, but she had so many things going on in her life, so many hurts and so much anger, that we all got mixed up.  Things got ugly, I got hurt, I raised those stinking walls around me to protect myself and she tried to tear them down physically;  it went from bad to worse.  Teen years were tough.  Life was tough - on her and on me.  But we made it.  And we survived and came to love each other very much.  I think she knew that - I often wish I had made it more abundantly clear, but she knew.  

I would love to share a few of my favorite pictures of my mom.  As with most moms, she was nearly always behind the camera, but we have a few great pictures of her.

Moma loved cherry reds and pinks:

She loved Coca Cola:

And mom loved all 4 of us kids:

Our mom was adopted.  Before we lost her, Liz and I made it a mission to find her natural family.  It was pretty darned amazing when we set our minds to it, we actually did it in one single day!  

Here she is with her natural Aunt and cousin.  Her mom had passed away years before we found them.  I think you can see in her picture she was happy to have finally met some blood relatives!

 My favorite picture of mom is the one below of her looking at me:

What a special moment; one most of us can relate to.  A first child and the look of amazement that you created her.  Me and mom - probably one of our first pictures together.

I am so glad I finally came around and tried to understand what all happened.  I am also glad I let myself forgive things that went on in our lives and moved on.  We came to laugh together, to cry, to hug and to cherish each other so much... life became good for us.  We had our own private jokes we laughed about.

I loved my mom and she knew it, Thank God.  I miss her.  Some days I feel like an orphan now, but I know she loved me and I know I will see her again someday, and then I can tell her how much I appreciated every thing she did for me.

We are going to Steve's mom's for Mother's Day - she is the only mom we have left.

Hug your mom's if you still have 'em and let 'em know how special they are in your life.  You have heard it before, but do it today.

Tomorrow may never come.

Hug a mom - even if it is not yours.  And if you are a mom have a Happy Mother's Day!  You are amazing!  You created a wonderful life to share with the world.  You.  Only a mom and God can do that. What can be more special than becoming a mom?  Being a mom!

Happy Mother's Day!