IT'S MY MOM'S BIRTHDAY!
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| look at that hair! ;) |
I'm not the kid that can say she and her mom have always been best friends. We fought a lot in my formative years, but here's the deal: she didn't then, hasn't since and I'm fairly certain never will not have my back. She's fought for me every day of my life, even before I was born (because yenno, adoption). She made sacrifices I can't imagine making, to be sure that the child she chose - not birthed - would have a well-rounded life. She invested in me with everything she had, and even though we can agree now that the good intentions didn't always hit their mark, they were there. Even when I felt most alone growing up, she was there. She is always, always there.
I wanted to say some things about her - my mom.
The first of those things is this: My mom is not the perfect mom. She never has been. She won't ever be. HOWEVER, the fact remains that she started that journey almost an entire year after her child was born. If you're anything other than blind, you've understood that I'm adopted; by definition alone that means that I am not her biological-born, and so the choices she made on my behalf were, in my eyes, just that much more intentional. She had none of it figured out when I got here. She didn't have to. My mom is the type of person who shines even brighter after moments of failure or mistake. I've never met anyone who so thoroughly uses a setback as an opportunity to do and be better on the next chance. That's been a hallmark of her personality for as long as I've known her, and from what I hear from my family, long before that.
Another thing: My mom is the epitomy of the finite balance between endless positivity and an almost annoying air caution. I don't know how she achieves both so fully. She chooses to find the light in everything, even if that light is a buried underdog in the battle. In the same breath, she's warning me to check my fruits and vegetables for pesticides and not to use toxic chemicals when I clean the areas my pets and family might use. She has an unwavering smile through it all, as though the sun being out in the sky is the best thing since the sun existing in the first place.
And then.. she's been the logistics coordinator and structural brain of our family for years, and is still somehow hilariously and adorably aloof. 2017 was the year she and my dad finally emerged from the leashes of FLIP PHONES, and went straight to smart phones. I now get to hear her say things like, "Oh, I just love the Google."
Us too, Mom. Us too.
If ever there was a non-celebrity human being who invested herself into the well-being of others around her before herself, it's my mom. She's a professional samaritan, which by proxy is likely one of the biggest contributors to her endless supply of joy. Oh, and if you've known my mom for more than 5 minutes, you'll know that that compassion is distributed in this order: Animals, Family, Food (aka, for everyone else). Those legends you hear about animal activists in the 70's with clipboard petitions to save caged pigeons are not just tall tales. That was her, in all her Farrah hair and bell-bottom prime. She channeled that into 20+years as the president of our hometown humane society, and has every ounce of credit for surrounding me with vets, trainers and breed advocates who taught me the fundamentals of animal well-being. I assisted in my first hands-on feline spaying surgery when I was 9, and was pulling rounds of deer ticks off stray dogs for multiple-hour sessions in my garage by the age of 11. I could recite the foster-to-adopt program by heart before I finished middle school, and it's because my mom was (is!) so passionate about any creature - 2 or 4+ legged, who don't have their own voice.
Lastly (for purposes of this blog, but certainly not lastly in general), my mom is HAPPY. She is happy with the life she's built, with what she's lost and what she's gained. The joy that is in her eyes isn't fake. It's not forced. It's there because she obliged her passion for adventure and loving others. For being a part of a community, a family, a business, or an excursion. She's happy because the things she's poured herself into were not always rewarding, but then when they were, it was tenfold. She is happy because she has surrounded herself with people who share her beliefs and her passions, and who continue to encourage and keep her accountable to her goals. And she's happy because she still has goals. My mom is genuinely happy with her life and what it has given and continues to give her. Our running joke is that she'll be the one still riding her bike 13 miles a day at 212 years old, when we're long gone. I mean, it's unlikely, but we'll see ;).
Mom, you deserve every bit of love and light today. I love you to the moon & back.
Happy Birthday ♥
xo | cms
