Dear Mama

Dear Mama,

Thank you for bringing me into this world. For nurturing me into this place before I was born. Thank you for taking care of yourself when I was dependent on you.

I never told you how much I appreciated you back then mom. When I would keep you up all night long with my crying. When I just wanted you to hold me even if it was 3 am. I’m sorry for the lack of sleep you got and how cranky you were all day from exhaustion. I appreciated it back then and I wanted to tell you just how thankful I am that you were my mom growing up.

Thank you for being patient with me as I grew up. Through my toddler years when I went through my terrible twos still you loved me and treated me right. Thank you for being optimistic and hopeful that eventually I would turn into a decent person.

Hey mama, remember the days when you’d take me to the babysitter and I would cry cause I couldn’t stand to have anyone but you watch me. We can laugh about it now, but we both had separation anxiety back then and don’t even get me started on the first day of school how stressful that was for us.

Which reminds me to thank you for being the greatest teacher I’ve ever had. You taught me everything mama. Whether it was tutoring me in my math classes in middle school to helping me plan science experiments. More importantly though you taught me life. You taught me about love. You were my first love and whether I was trying to date every person I saw or was content to just be by myself, that didn’t matter to you. You were going to teach me, teach me that before I love someone else I must love myself. You taught me that being in a relationship didn’t have to dictate my happiness and that happiness was a choice. You empowered me to be myself and be free and when I got stuck in a bad relationship you played Mama Bear; you spoke kindly and firmly all at once, you were loving and patient with me yet you were determined to protect me.

You taught me how to take care of myself and be independent. Thank you for that mama, cause someday’s I’m not sure how I ended up where I am today. Never in my dreams would I have thought I’d reach the peaks I did, see the places I saw, and surpassed the dreams I dreamed. You were my backbone and strength. You were the one who when everyone said “I can’t” you whispered “Just believe” and knew the rest would be history.

Thank you mama for standing by me through my ups and my downs. When I was on top of the world you were there and when I was on rock bottom you sat by me and picked me up. You’re constant love will forever remind me of what my love should look like. It looks like a smile and kiss on a bleeding knee when I’m crying. It looks like cooking a separate meal for me when I was to picky to eat your meatloaf. It looks like dropping me off at the school, picking me up after, dropping me off at practice, picking me up after, dropping me off at a friends house, and bringing me home past dark. It looks like like sacrifice that growing up was overlooked and now just blows me away in how much you truly gave up for me. Your love looks like going to every sporting event and cheering for me even when we both knew I’d never get in the game and later it looked like being at every sporting to watch me perform even if it was a 10 hour drive away. Your love looks like defending me even when I mess up and always believing and seeing the best in me. Your love looks like Christ, shining through the heavens brightening up everything around you.

Dear mama, you did everything for me growing up: you watched me, you cooked for me, you did my laundry, you bought me clothes, toys, games, and more junk than I actually needed and you did it with a smile on your face. I’m most thankful for your love though. I know I’m biased but I’ll always believe that I grew up with the best mother in the world. As you grow older and need more help the tables will turn and it will be I taking care of you and dad and because you showed me what that looks like I can do it for you, with a smile on my face.

This goes out to all the mom’s out there in honor of Mother’s Day. You are all so appreciated and so loved and so wonderful. Allow this to be a thank you for all your hard work because your children are thinking it even if they don’t say it. Thank you all for guiding us, loving us, encouraging us, equipping us, and believing in us. You are a wonderful and beautiful woman and you changed our life and the lives of everyone we meet. You put your nurturing and loving fingerprint on our heart forever.

We love you.

Sincerely,

Your Children.