Happy Mother's Day

I remember...

My mom...
...taking me to the emergency room when I split my chin open on the kitchen counter when I was 7.
...making a decision to stop life-support, and then to have to tell her 13-year-old son that his father would die the next day.
...not making a big deal out of it when she found the copy of Playboy I snuck into my room when I was 14.
...putting Ozzy Ozbourne records in (well, near) my Christmas stocking, ignoring the upside down crosses on the cover and the obvious irony that gift celebrating that holiday.
...buying me a really cool car when I was 16.
...being a good sport in coming to my fraternity house for Parent's Weekend even though she was the only single mom in the deal.
...paying for college even though it didn't take her long to realize that my "experiences" would be more valuable than any financial renumeration based on that investment.
...letting me make my own choices and at least telling me she was behind me %100.

My mother-in-law...
...telling me that she thought "that would be just fine" when I was asking for her blessing to marry her oldest daughter.
...buying my future father-in-law a basketball goal as a Christmas gift the next day.
...never saying a word about her son-in-law's career choices, even though she had every right to question them.
...making me spaghetti and cherry cheesecake for my birthday.
...sending me the copies of the Birmingham News for Auburn football coverage before there was an Internet after I moved to Dallas to go to seminary.
...buying me Auburn stuff knowing that I really want it and not because it's all she can think of to get me.
...cooking the best meals at holidays.
...falling asleep during almost every movie we've ever watched as a family.
...crying in the driveway, saying goodbyes, as her son-in-law took her daughter, 3 year old, and 11 month old granddaughters off to Dallas, and still supporting that decision.
...going above and beyond the call in grandmothering. She's very good at that.

My wife...
...looking truly radiant at 8-months pregnant, truly defining beautiful. Those images are seared into my brain.
...handling a difficult 18-hour labor better than I did.
...for actually enjoying the second, much shorter, more normal labor & delivery.
...taking to the "mom" thing like a duck to water. She was built for it.
...having a mother's intuition that is so dead-on that now I don't even question it.
...letting me go after a job interview in North Carolina less than 12 hours after Shelby was born, knowing that plenty of family help was around and that if her husband didn't get into a church youth ministry soon life would be miserable for a while.
...finding that difficult balance between encouraging her daughter's ballet habit and being a stereotypically asinine "stage mom."
...being supportive of her other daughter's baseball habit and sports passions even though they don't come naturally to her.
...for starting her own business and becoming successful with it while at the same time not missing a beat on being a mother.

So, happy Mother's Day to the moms in my life and for being so good at that area of your lives!