Mother's Day 2014

I think that until you become a parent, or have the desire to BE a parent, you don't really understand how special Mother's Day is.  Until just a few years ago, it was just another holiday, and I'd remember to say "Happy Mother's Day" to my mom and other moms, but the day didn't have any bigger meaning until I became a parent myself.  Now I understand what being a parent, and more specifically, a mom, really is and that makes me so much more grateful for the sacrifices my own mom made.  Mother's Day really is a special day to celebrate some special people, and I'm so grateful to have some pretty exceptional moms in my life.

The first, of course, being my own mom.  I'm so thankful that God chose this woman to be my mom.  She has given so much of herself to both my sister and me, and now to her grand-daughter, Kate.  She has loved me and supported me throughout my life, and taught me how to be a mom.  Now that I am a grown-up (based on age, anyway), our relationship has developed into a friendship that I depend on.  I don't know what I would do without her and our daily phone calls. Love you, Mom!

The second exceptional mom in my life is Kate's birth mom.  She is a strong and beautiful young woman, who loved Kate before Kevin and I even knew of her existence.  She, and Kate's birth father, first chose to give Kate life and then chose Kevin and me to be her parents.  They trusted us with her, and gave me the title of "Mom", which I'll be forever thankful for.  When they placed Kate with us, our family grew by not just one tiny baby, but by Kate's entire birth family.

There are so many other exceptional moms in my life, but for brevity, I'll stop the list here... and I'm getting a little sappy anyway. :)

So on a different note... as is tradition in our family, we took an annual Mommy/Kate picture after church today.

It's a little crazy how big Kate is getting.  I'm thinking that this will be the last year that I'm able to hold her for our annual Mother's Day picture.