Are you my mudda? An ode to mom ❤️

When I arrived in Mississippi, I immediately got on a van that took me to Biloxi. Basically the longest day of my life! Be up at 3 am to leave the MTC, and a four and half hour plane ride with a screaming baby and then an Elder who talked like Mrs. Doubtfire! THEN I had a four hour van ride to Biloxi. Yeah. Exhausting. Meeting your new companion is always a little nerve wracking. That’s an understatement. It’s freaken frightening! Are they fun? Will they like you? Do they have a personality? Ah! So I was nervous, and so was she! I finally met Sister Bithell and we got in the car to head back to dinner. I always dread meeting new people for this ONE reason. The horrible, sad, awkward question of “tell me about your mom and dad!” 1. I don’t want to tell you about them. B. When I tell you, you’re gonna give me the awkward sorry face. And tres. I just don’t want to. Haha. Sure enough, we get in the car, we are carpooling with the elders, and she asks. This is how it went. Bithell: So tell me about your parents! Me: Oh, my mom works for a construction company blah blah blah… Awkward pause….. Bithell: and your dad? Me: well, my dad passed away when I was younger! (Here I await the awkward conversation about to take place.) Bithell: Really? My mom died when I was younger! Me: SWEET! *HIGH FIVE*
Yep. We high fived each other about our dead parents. The elders just awkwardly sat there. That is the one and only time I will ever high five about death haha. And then from then on, we were good. 👊🏼
So I just wanna take a minute and talk about single parents. They’re pretty bomb. Not that married parents aren’t the bomb. They are too. I just don’t know what that’s like. So props to both of y’all for doing what you do. 👏🏽 but let’s continue with the single parents. 
My mom has been a single parent since I can remember. I don’t remember a whole lot about my dad…which is a sad story of its own. But anyways. SHE has been tbere the whole time. My mom has worked a full time job her entire life! WHAT! I get exhausted working four hour days and she worked 40 PLUS hours a WEEK! What!? And not only that..but after working she would come home to two small kids! My parents separated when I was young and were divorced by the time I was 5. That meant for a crazy long day for her, everyday. EVERYDAY.

The influence of a mother in the lives of her children is beyond calculation.  

Moms are important. They are obviously here for a reason. They are what makes us! Of course we have our personalities and stubbornness that refuses to do things anyway but our own, but ultimately they are what create us. There were countless times on my mission, and throughout my life of course, that I heard my mother come out of me. For instance, when I was a kid we would always sing in the car. That’s what we did. Radio off, we were singing silly songs that we would have to repeat back to mom. One day, we were stuck in traffic, and the person in front of us was driving slower than he should have been. Mom angrily shouted “AH COME ON! LETS GET THE LED OUT PEOPLE!” I get my road rage from her! Haha Next thing I know, it’s a song. Since then, and even when I’m driving by myself, I will sing it if the person in front of me is driving obnoxiously slow! 
There was a time on my mission where someone threatened to call the police if we didn’t leave the apartment complex. I secretly hoped they would because that would have been fun to write home about. Anyways, he was yelling and I was trying to maintain the sacredness of the name tag I was wearing that I calmly yelled back. After a few minutes my companion suggested we leave, and as I walked down the stairs… Man I swear my mom was there! I started saying all these things that embarrass me when she would do it back home! “What’s your name? I’m going to make a complaint about you! Etc!” As if it wasn’t bad enough I said that, I actually DID it! Haha. #facepalm 
You see mothers? We see you. We watch you. We listen. We are impacted more than you know. We may mouth off, and fight back. We may do the complete opposite of what you said to do, but that’s because we have to. It’s a teenager rule. The unspoken code. We know we shouldn’t but that is besides the point. My mom instilled pretty good fear in me as a kid. A good kind of fear. My brother got in trouble for hurting me and he left, and he came home to his bedroom on the front lawn. Momma didn’t mess around. I didn’t want my room in the front yard, partly because then she’d see how messy underneath my bed was.. So I didn’t dare do anything terrible. All she had to do was give me the look and I knew I was done. It was good. We still had fun. We still sang songs in the car and roller bladed around the house as she tricked us into thinking cleaning was fun. My mom is wonderful.

Moms are not just nurturers. Some moms have to bring home the bacon and cook it too. My mom was my chauffeur, cook, teacher, softball coach, lawyer, housekeeper, pest control, number one fan. She gave me private concerts as she would sing Nat King Cole and Neil Diamond in the shower, and in bed if we had nightmares.  

I love my mom. I don’t say it enough but that’s because I’m awkward when it comes to saying those words. She is amazing and incredible. She is such a hard worker. She doesn’t give up, and never asks for help. She’s pretty funny too. I’ll do things and she will get mad but I know for a fact I learned it from her. 😂 I am grateful for her love for the Savior. I am grateful for her willingness to give life her all and not give up… even though she’s had every reason too. I love that she loves to travel and took me on so many trips! She will tell ya I slept the whole way, but I just pretended so I didn’t have to listen to the boring talks on tape. I am grateful for her example of independence. She does it all. And if she doesn’t know how, she fakes it pretty well. I am grateful. 
Thank you mom for your sacrifice and for putting up with me! Thank you to moms everywhere. Y’all are fabulous. Y’all are incredible. Your kids may not say it enough, but they think you are. We are just too awkward to say it. 

LOVE your moms. We are so busy growing up, we often forget they are also growing old.

Love y’all. 🙌🏼