Mom

Today my siblings and I, those that live in the area, had breakfast with my mom.It was her birthday on the 15th. She is a great woman. Raised 6 kids, 5 who were born in a 6 year period. That is because when the twins were born, #4 and #5, John was 5 almost 6, I was 4, and Jean was 2 almost 3. Crazy...right? My admiration for her grew by leaps and bound when I had both my girls. My girls were 18 months apart. It was then that I realized my mother is a saint!!!! She and I struggled during my teenage years. Mostly because we were both stubborn. And I thought I knew it all and she didn't. The teenage brain damage curse. She recognized our similarities and would tell me a story every once in a while. As a believing and practicing Mormon, I believe that there is a life before we come to earth called the preexistence. We were spirits created by Heavenly Father and lived with Him before coming to experience mortal life. So, my mom had this story about us. It goes something like this: In the preexistence she and I were good friends. And we decided she would come down to here to her family, and eventually become my mom. that way we could one day enjoy our friendship. And finally after many many years of my personal struggles in which she largely had to sit by and allow me to exercise my free agency by hurting myself with an eating disorder (18 years, it took my a looooong time to learn that Heavenly Father loved me no matter what which is another entire post), we love getting together. Talking about and watching college football, traveling and more. I am so glad she is my mother. I am so glad she came down first. I got to play sports and she didn't. She sacrificed my hours shuttling me to and from practices, games, and the ER (many many times as I had no problem sacrificing my body to the sport I was playing). She is 70 which is one more year older than my dad was when he passed away. I hope I get to enjoy many more of her birthdays!