Day 3: Your Parents

Many people spend their lives figuring out what they want to be "when they grow up" and working hard to get there. For my mom, the first part was easy. She wanted to be a mother, plain and simple. Making that happen was the hard part.

My mother spent a lot of money and time, and went through a lot of heartache to conceive me (and later my sister.) She went through numerous miscarriages and visited doctors to address concerns and was blessed along the way with two babies.

As any woman who was lucky enough to have children, despite the obstacles, she has devoted her entire life to being a mother. She would have loved to stay home and focus on being a mother and wife, but it simply wasn't possible. My dad was working on his degree (they were pretty young, after all) and delivering pizzas. Mom had to work just to make ends meet.

Although she's held a few different jobs throughout her life and been married more then once, I know she would say her greatest achievement is motherhood. I would agree.

She has given so much of herself to making sure my sister had everything we ever needed. Sometimes she was making her own bread and barely paying the bills, especially when she was a single mom. But, I can say without reservation, that she always has sacrificed herself so we could be happy. Never once, through all the hard times, did I doubt that I was loved, cared for and supported. She's an angel.

ooo

I could say a few words about my dad; tell you he's a nice guy and always loved me. Those things are true. But what's also true is that he's always been better at the fun stuff - pizza and movie nights, coaching my little league softball, and cracking jokes - then he ever was at the important stuff. Dad never disciplined or sent money or helped with homework.

He's always been the guy who thinks loving me "a whole heap of a lot" was what I needed from my father. But it wasn't.

Which is where my step-dad comes in.

He's an amazing man, who not only loves my mom, but came into our lives at a time when I was just about to leave for college and my sister was in the hell-years of being a teenager. Never once did he waiver in taking on this role. And he has managed to provide everything for our family we could possibly ask for.

He is the reason I can change a tire, shoot a gun and throw a good punch. He is the reason I work hard, manage my money and rely on only myself to get the things I want in life. He taught me how to be an independent woman. For these things, I am eternally grateful.

I am so blessed to have an amazing set of parents. I couldn't ask for anything better.