Someone That Loves You Just As You Are

This week's Thank YOU! Thursday was a no-brainer.
Someone who loves me just how I am would be my mom.  

{My First Birthday :: 1983}

 We've had our share of ups and downs the last year, and no matter where I've been emotionally (super happy, super sad or super pissed) I know she will support me.  The move has been hard on our relationship, as we don't talk everyday, and are somewhat out of the loop on each others' daily lives.

{Car seats have come a long way!}

But I am hoping with time we get back to that, talking more often, and figuring out how to fit each other into our already crazy-busy days.  Being home this summer will make it easy, being in the same place, hanging out with my sister & her boys, and loving on my three boys.  I am looking forward to it.

{Shelly & Roxanne :: 1992}

My mom is a very forgiving person.  When I complain to her about Josh, or my sister, or my friends, she is very quick to offer me their potential perspective, an excuse for their behavior or a mirror to look at myself in.  When I was getting married, and thought all of my life was going to be perfect (sunshine & lollipops), she loved me.  She let me bask in my naivete, knowing all the while that life was not always going to be so kind.  She let me be because optimism is good to have, and life was going to come at me, whether she warned me or not.  

{Thursday November 18, 1982}

And then, when life did come at me, and I found myself feeling dark, pessimistic and wanting for hope, she was there for me. She was the one who hugged me joyfully the morning I found out I was pregnant with Wyatt, and she was the one who let me be angry a year later when Josh left for Alaska.

She tells me now how raging I was. How sharp & unhuggable I became when he left.  But at the time, knowing me and loving me, she just let me feel my feelings and be.

{Dallas, Shelly & a newborn kitten}

She loves me as I am, without ever needing or wanting to change me.  She accepts that I am growing, loving me through each painful stage, knowing that I will come out on the other side a better person.

She loves me fat and she loves me skinny.  I know no matter how I look, I am her daughter, she loves me and she enjoys my company.  I feel completely comfortable in my own skin around her.

{This one reminds me of Wyatt}

So, mom, thank you. 

Thank you for loving me as I am
throughout all my whole life, 

but particularly the last five years.