Happy Mother's Day! Maureen

I'm feeling a little bit melancholy today as we celebrate Mother's Day.  I think back on my mother and my heart begins to tug a little as memories come flooding back to days long ago.  I hope I was like most teenagers were of days ago but honestly I'm not sure.  I mostly was doing things with my friends and paid most attention to them and had little time spent with my parents.  I know they were always there but they weren't 'there' if you catch my drift.  I was so totally focused on me that 'they' were just on the periphery of my life.  It wasn't until my mission that the awesomeness of their existence began to dwell upon me.  The absolute model of sacrifice, love and support began to sink in and I then realized what a putz I had been.  I think now that it took some hard lessons learned on my mission to understand that we all have to look outside of ourselves to realize that Mom's (and Dad's) have it right all along.

I have learned that by being a parent, any amount of sacrifice whether large or small, is nothing in a parents' calling.  I have learned that my mother, bless her heart, would, if necessary, sacrifice her life for the benefit of her children.  I have learned over the years, that my mother did sacrifice her life for the benefit of her children.  Everything she did, she did that I might become a better person, that I might love the Lord with all my heart and that I might honor her sacrifice by how I raised my family.

I have learned that the Mother of my children, has done exactly what my mother did for me.  She has taken a page right out of my mothers' and her mothers' manual and followed it to a tee.  She is a wonderful mother and grandmother.  And so, in honor of my mother and the mother of our children and grandchildren....Happy Mother's Day, Maureen and Mom!!  I love you and cherish you.  Mom....wish I could hear your voice once again!