I'm Just Sayin': The Women In My Life

May 11, 2014 at 8:28am

Note, I've place spaces in place of the names to protect the privacy of those mentioned.

Today is a special day for me. I get to celebrate two very important women in my life. Today is Mother's Day, as well as my 18th wedding anniversary with my wonderful wife,_______. One woman gave me life, the other made my life worth living. To say that I'm feeling beyond blessed is an understatement. Not bad for a guy who wasn't supposed to be born. The doctors told my mother not to have another baby, that it would end badly for both her and me. She had me anyway. When I was less than a year old, I had a cyst the size of a golf ball pressing against my brain. I wasn't supposed to live, but both my mother and my father prayed fervently for God to spare my life. Their prayers were answered and the doctors were given the ability to remove it with no harm done (although I do have a nice scar on the back of my head which will baffle hairdressers for decades.) in return for her sacrifice, as a child I made her life as difficult as possible, living up to the youngest child stereotype of bratty behavior which I have honed into an art form. My mother is an executive chef, chauffeur, referee, nurse, councilor, maid, babysitter, drill sergeant, cheerleader, and party planner. I would ask her what she would do in her spare time, except she had no spare time. Between me and my two brothers, there was never a dull moment in her life. We ate, then she ate. We slept, then she slept (sometimes). She cared for us, then if she were awake enough she'd take care of herself. She did all of this with nary a complaint. She loved us unconditionally and over time, the three of us learned to return that love. If you ask her if she had any regrets, she may have had one; that being she never had a daughter of her own. I'm sure she would have liked to pass down motherly advice and tactics the way fathers do with their sons. She'd have to wait until her boys got married to have daughters to impart wisdom and girly stuff to. And if you asked her, she'd tell you that's the one thing we got right. Not having a sister of my own, I could not have asked for a better one that the woman my brother married, a pretty spectacular mom in her own right. She managed to raise two boys who have been pretty epic nephews. It would be some time before I would ever meet a woman that could match the skills I've witnessed by her predecessors. Which brings me to where I am today.

Today is not only Mother's Day, but it's also the eighteenth anniversary of the day I looked into the eyes of the most beautiful woman I've ever had the privilege to lay eyes on, and committed the rest of my life to her. _______ continues to be everything I could have ever asked or hoped for in a wife. Street smart, fun, sexy, resourceful, Godly. These are just a handful of the many adjectives that describe her. To list them all would take me forever to name. I am forever thankful to know her. We've been married for eighteen years, but I've been head-over-heels in love with her for twenty. She is not merely the love of my life, she IS my life. The example that she has learned from her own mother (who is also awesome) has served her well as a mother herself. A more amazing mother to my children I could not ask for.

So today I celebrate the women in my life. My mother, _____. My sister in-law, _____. My mother in-law, _____. My other sister in-law, _____ (not a mom herself, but she's every bit as important to me). My daughter, ______, who is growing into a fine young lady thanks to the examples of the women listed above. And above all else, my wife _______, without whom my life would be incomplete at best.

Never underestimate the women in your life. You would not be here without one.