Thanks Mom

One of the best things about having a mom is that she is always there....especially during long separations from your husband.   This may sound cliche, however, until you live far enough away from your mom for long enough, you will not fully understand the meaning of "there."  Though she may not physically come rushing over to help with the kids or sit and have a cup of tea (or Starbucks French Roast coffee in our case), she is just a phone call away.  She may not always be the one to meet you for lunch or watch the kids for an evening.  Though on the contrary, she is the one you call when the kids are sick and you are not sure what to do.  At night when you hear something odd, you call mom, thousands of miles away, just to hear her voice.  She is there with an idea when you've exhausted your internal cookbook.  She is the one who you ask for advice on how to discipline your two year old.  After all she did go through the "terrible" two's eleven times!  If one was wise, she would heed her advice.  What about the times when you do visit her? Most often these special times are during a deployment for me. You can bring your little ones home to her and know for sure that they will be well fed, well loved and well dressed for the allotted time of visit.  She is my favorite chef, my personal stylist and my spiritual advisor.  She brings me coffee in bed, chocolate in sorrow and green shakes in moments of draining desperation.  My mom has spent anniversaries, birthdays, Christmases and every other yearly holiday with me when my husband could not.  Tonight, she spent the Valentine's Saturday on the phone with me.  Is there anyone else in the world who would or could do that?  Somehow, Mommy still makes it all OK.  I feel for those of you who do not have a special or close relationship with your mother.  I give you so much more credit when it comes to facing deployments, childbirth and the rearing of children without your mom.  My prayer is that you would find a motherly figure whose wisdom you value, whose words you trust and whose love will carry you through.  Deployments would be awful if I did not have my mom.  She has made this deployment and the past two very bearable for me.  Thanks Mom for being there.  Better yet, thank you Lord for giving me my mother.  She is one of a kind and I am so glad I can call her mine!