To My Mom

Mom,

You have always been one of my favorite people.  What I love most about our relationship is that we’ve never had a time when we weren’t close.  You’ve always been one of my best friends – in fact, until being married this year, I would have said you were my absolute best friend.  Times when I’ve had the most fun have been with you.  Here are a few of my favorite memories and things about you:

 

1. When JT, Casey, and I were little, you always made us feel like we were the center of your world.  I know now that Dad occupied that spot, but thank you for fooling us.  When we were little, you took us on bike rides and let us swim in the lake and even learned to roller blade with us.  I don’t remember us taking special trips or going out to eat much, but you made everyday life exciting and fun.  We played dress up and pretend.  You took us to the library to get books – one of my favorite outings – and you let me pick whatever I wanted. 

 

2. You let us be who we wanted to be.  You let JT get his name shaved in the back of his hair, and you let Casey cut his in a Mohawk.  You let me paint my bedroom teal and even helped me put yellow sponge marks on it – and then told me it looked great!  You let me wear dresses until fourth grade, and then you let me wear those horrible leggings. Bless my heart, I had no style, and you knew it, but you let me wear what I wanted. 

 

3. You taught us to love and support each other.  I went to all those little league games, and JT and Casey came to my gymnastics meets and band concerts.  If one of us did well, you made sure all of us knew.  You taught us to buy birthday presents and Christmas gifts for each other from the time we were young, and one of my favorite traditions was how you had us open each other’s gifts on Christmas Eve night instead of Christmas morning so we would truly take the time to appreciate and cherish what we had given one another.

 

4. You had high expectations but great love.  Praise God none of us ever got in any major trouble, but I have no doubt that if we had, you would have loved us through it.  I knew you expected our best, but I knew that if we fell, you’d pick us back up.

 

5. My favorite thing about our relationship is that you are one of the few people who “got” me for a long time.  I didn’t have a ton of close friends, but you made time to be my sounding board.  You understood the ins and outs of the relationships I had in high school, and you know why it is that I love each of my college friends so much.  You understand why I could never have married a better man than Andy Speight, and you saw exactly what we wanted out of a wedding and supported our choices.

 

6. I love the lessons you’ve taught me over the years. Thank you for telling me I was beautiful for years and years especially when I didn’t believe you.  Thank you for helping me have confidence in my abilities.  Thank you for teaching me that I didn’t need a boy to make me valuable.  Thank you for teaching me the value of hard work and the equal importance of family.  Thank you for teaching me about grace and forgiveness and love. 

 

7. I appreciate that you helped me have a relationship with Jesus.  Now that I’m an adult, I admire even more how purposeful you were about teaching us about Jesus. I know that when you were raising us, you were still trying to figure out a personal relationship with Jesus yourself, but thank you for bringing us into that journey.  Thank you for reading us Bible stories and taking us to AWANA and playing Christian music in the car and going to Disciple Bible Study with me and making sure we made it to church.  When I started to become really passionate about the Lord and wanted to talk about my opinions and beliefs as a way of figuring out where I stood, I appreciate you for letting me talk and helping me figure out faith and encouraging me to dig deeper.

 

8.  Finally, I want you to know that for all the ways I appreciate you as a mother, I also appreciate you deeply as a mother-in-law.  Thank you for loving Andy, Grace, and Alley as your own.  Thank you for all your efforts to have personal relationships with them and for sharing their accomplishments as quickly as you share mine, JT, and Casey’s.  Thank you for pushing us to be close – for suggesting the girls call each other or go on walks when we are in town at the same time and for coming up with things the guys can do together.  Thank you especially for how you love my husband.  I am so thankful for the relationship you guys have together.  I love that you call him your buddy and that you appreciate who he is.  I love that he gets a kick out of you and your excitement for little things.  I hope you will always have as much fun together as you do now.

 

Mom, these are only a few of the reasons I love you.  I am sure I could write a book about all the ways you are awesome and how I’ll be forever thankful that you are in my life.  I hope that if God blesses me with children, I will be half the mother to them that you are to me.  I love you!! Shannon