Happy Birthing Day

Dear Mama,
Twenty-five years ago today you were in the very uncomfortable situation of giving birth to me. Thank you.

Thank you for choosing a natural birth with only my safety (obviously not your comfort!) in mind.

Thank you for choosing to breastfeed me, and I'm eternally sorry if I ever bit you. I can now understand what a huge commitment breastfeeding is, and just how painful it can be!

Thank you for giving me such amazing siblings. While I know that having four children under the age of four had to be ROUGH (in a way that I can't begin to fathom), I truly LOVED having such perfect playmates.

Thank you for raising me in a faith-filled home. Even to this day, when I say nighttime prayers out loud to Sam, I still say, "Bless Mama, Daddy, Daniel, Jennifer, Travis, Matthew, Elizabeth, and all our friends and relatives. Amen." And then I have to back up and include Steve and Sam because, er, they're my family now too!

Thank you for taking us OUT. I know that it had to be zillion times easier for you to just stay put at home. Why would you want to take five kids to the grocery store? Or to a playground? Or anywhere that wasn't our fenced-in backyard? I know now that getting out was not only good for us, but good for you as well, and I'm glad you made such a huge effort to get us all out and doing things.

Thank you for being a stay-at-home-mom. I know that things were tight with only one income, but I never felt like we lacked ANYTHING. My childhood was the best.

Thank you for showing me what a healthy marriage looks like.

I'm sorry for ever making fun of your sweatpants. I totally get it now. I swear.

Thank you for taking us on the long trips to visit our grandparents. While traveling with that many small people (and usually on a Friday during Lent, no less) had to be a stress-inducing event, I appreciate having the chance to form a relationship with the people who raised you and Dad.

Thank you for all of the little notes you left in the lunchboxes during school, the letters and newspaper articles in the mail during college, and the continued notes and articles you still send today. Receiving mail is still really exciting.

Thank you for the gift of college, by-the-way! To not have student loans and outstanding debt lingering over me is such a blessing and I am so grateful for it. Again, I know that had to be TOUGH, what with all the other siblings cycling in and out of college, but I greatly appreciate it.

I'm sorry for not appreciating all of these great things you've done for me sooner. It took me having my own child to fully realize the sacrifices you made and how hard you had to work to make such a great life for me.

Thank you for everything, Mama, and Happy Birthing Day.