For Mom

If I were home for Mother's Day, I wouldn't be blogging this. I'd be there to give Mom a hug, tell her I love her, and take care of as much of the kitchen work as I could.
My Mom is a natural nurturer. She's got a gift for loving things, whether it be infants, children, small animals, ornery teenagers, or grown-up smarty-pants college kids. I'm not really talking about the physical "she fed me good" type of nurturing. I'm talking about something much richer. Did you ever have a day when you felt like you were a failure, that the world hated you, and you had nobody on your side? If ever one of those days come along, I think of my Mom. Because no matter what, I know that her capacity to love will always be sufficient for me. The world doesn't matter. My Mom really cares. She loves me, and I know it.
Babies and little kids love her! Just watch who the grand-daughters run to. She can calm a crying baby faster than anyone I know. She's saved more dogie calves than anyone I know.
My Mom is amazing. She is good with details. She makes the most incredible gingerbread house each year at Christmas time, and every year, it's perfect! I think I strive for that sort of ability and fall short. I'm very concerned with detail, and it matters to me in what I do, but being able to pull it off so matter-of-factly, Mom's got me beat by a long shot. And there's nothing like a Mom-made sandwich. No matter how hard I try to perfect the sandwich-making art, it never tastes quite like the sandwich with a Mom touch.
My Mom is a joy to talk to! I didn't realize this until I moved away from home. I look forward to coming home and just having some time with Mom to talk. She tells me all the fun little details of life I've missed, but she knows I'll appreciate. And she listens! She is so good at listening and I love telling her stories.
My Mom (and Dad, but it's not Fathers' Day) made my childhood sweet. I remember one day, Mom heard about a pet show in Flagstaff that was announced on the radio. Anyone who knew us as kids knows that we were zoo-keepers. If it was living and we could catch it, we did. And we kept our animals and our Mother let us! She told us about the pet show and asked us if we wanted to go. She would think of fun things and then go take us to do them! Holidays were magical. If you've ever been around our house on Christmas morning to smell the orange-rolls baking, you have an idea.
One day on the way home from school, my brother Mike and I found a cat that needed a home. It started to follow us. We knew that if Mom could just see it, she couldn't help but want to take care of it, and she'd let us keep it. We brought it home and kept it in our rabbit cage until the perfect opportunity came to reveal our secret. We were right. We got to keep that cat.
She's been such a great example of endurance and faithfulness. I've never doubted her testimony of the gospel because her actions showed it regularly.
She's the most beautiful lady in the world to me. My Dad was blessed to find her and we were blessed to have her as our Mom.
When I think back to my best memories, I can always find Mom attached. She's the best. (Alicia, I'm counting on you to show her this page.)