Love in action

My mom amazes me.  She always has but now that I'm a mother I've been reflecting on her life and her love like never before.  I want to be more like her.  The obstacles and trials she has conquered in this life are heartbreaking but because of the grace and gratitude she has for her life, trials included, it is transformed into beauty.  I'm so grateful for her optimism and her selfless service.  She looks for the beauty in people and all things and because she is always seeking the good, she finds it.  We joke that she has the word "sucker" tattooed on her forehead because wherever she goes (restaurants, grocery stores, the gym, etc.) someone seeks her out for help with something (locating a restroom, asking if a certain food is good, wondering how to remove a stain from a shirt...)  When I was little I thought everyone talked to strangers in public places but now that I'm older and see that it isn't so I've come to learn that people feel love from her and therefore feel comfortable asking for her help.

Recently I was amazed by the amount of love and service my mom so freely and happily gave to friends and family in just ONE day!  Her day began at 6am feeding her animals and giving them their medicine (insulin to her diabetic cat and medicine to her epileptic dog), she then went to my brother's house.  He was leaving for work early and his wife was out of town so she went to wake up the kids, feed them breakfast and get them off to daycare.  Then she was off to clean an elderly woman's home (she was being paid to do this but she didn't want to take the job in the first place but she did because the woman needed her help).  Next she came to my house to help me get the nursery organized for a couple of hours.  When she left my house she was headed home to rest but when I called her to ask a question she was at her friend's house who was feeling ill and didn't want to be alone.  Once her friend began to feel better my mom went home to shower and rest from her looooong day, it was 8pm at this point.  She managed to shower but as she got out her phone was ringing.  It was my sister who was on her way to the ER with her 2 year old who had busted his face open at his great grandma's house.  She was calling to ask my mom to pick up her 4 year old from the ER so my sister and her husband could stay with their little guy.  So of course she was quickly on her way to pick up her 4 year old granddaughter to get her home to bathe her and get her to bed.  She waited up for my sister and her family to get home.  She managed to get home at 3:30am and get to bed only to wake up in 2 hours to take care of her pets and head back to my brother's to help with his kids again.  She had the day off but instead of going home to sleep she insisted on coming to my house to spend 4 hours helping me to further organize the nursery.  She is amazing!!!  A mother's work is never finished I suppose.  I hope that I can somehow be the kind of mother my mom has been to me.  I love her more than words could ever express!