Mother's Day Week

We celebrate Mother's Day at the end of this week...I have a lot of gratitude and love for my Mom. I think this quote capture's the feelings I have looking back on my childhood:

"I got to grow up with a mother who taught me to believe in me." Antonia Villaraigosa

I always new my Mom loved me, she still does, says it every time I talk to her. She hugged me frequently as a child and still does every time I see her. I think she rocked me and read me stories till I was almost a teenager. She believed in me. She encouraged me to do anything I was interested in and when things didn't go the way I expected, we picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, sometimes with a good cry and we moved on. She also sent the BEST letters to me at camp and college and she carries this on by sending my husband a card every week while he is in a different kind of camp!

She encourage me to be involved...just how did she do that? She was involved herself. From taking someone a meal when they were sick or grieving, working the church funerals, teaching Sunday School, volunteering at school and the nursing home,  planting flowers just about everywhere they were needed and hauling me to just about every 4-H function, concert and sporting event. She was there... she was present. That alone made me believe I could do it, whatever it might be.

This week I am honored to be awarded the Annual NW Hennepin Human Services Council "Invest in the NW" Volunteer Award. I couldn't believe another Mom in my life that I look up to so much, Gerry Gibbs with the BPPD (also a Blue Star Mom) would nominate me for this. I am so blessed that Mom and Gerry will be both attending the luncheon with me.  I feel so humbled and honored to get this award because I grew up doing things because they needed to be done and in the spirit of caring. You never did anything to receive the accolades that went with it. That was a very important lesson Mom taught me.

I want to send out a big thank you to some special Mom's in my life. First to the Blue Star Mom's...Military Moms can be the rock for many of us Military Wives. They support us, guide us, and help us raise our children while their father's are off at military training and deployments. I also want to thank the Daycare Mom's and Teacher Mom's... they are pretty amazing too!

Make sure to tell that special "Mom" in your life, thank you this week. You will feel glad you did!