I cannot imagine what it’s like to be a mother. I have no idea what it must feel like to conceive three children, give birth to two, but see only one live to adulthood. How do you learn to parent when you didn’t grow up in a healthy family or have a strong parenting role model? And when your prime adult years are focused on keeping a critically ill child alive, how do you find normalcy? Yet in spite of the pain and difficulty, you somehow overcame to be a good mom and grandmother. The things true of your childhood were not true of mine. Today I am thankful for what you sacrificed and endured to give me a good life.

When I became a dad, I had not read books or attended classes on how to parent. More or less I did what seemed good and right. I had examples of good parenting to fall back on and role models to emulate. I knew to spend time with my kids, to be a part of their lives every day, to let them be who God created them to be, and to nurture them toward faith in Christ. These things came somewhat naturally to me because this is how I was raised. Whatever good I have done as a parent, I owe to you and to the grace of God.

Thank you for being my mother. Thank you for sacrificing education and career to be home for me and Mark. Thank you for enduring the daily exhaustion of parenting both a sick child and a hyperactive one. Thank you for loving me and my family through all the years and different cities and homes and jobs and churches that have filled our journey. Wherever I go and whatever I do, I know I have a mother who loves me, is proud of me, and did everything in her power to give me all she could. I love you. Happy Mother’s Day.

Your son,

Matt