Wǒ yào wǒ de māmā

Dear Mother,

Well yesterday was your birthday. Hopefully this will be posted while it's still your birthday in the states. I don't know though because I'm trying to make this so clever!

The first thing that I thought of when I was thinking of what to do for your post was this song...

So....I was thinking and thinking of what to write for you for your birthday. I knew it was going to have to be really good because you have done so much for me and sacrificed so much for me.

I had so many ideas; I could write a parody to a song, I could write a poem, I could write a list of stuff. But nothing really stuck out to me as awesome! So I thought harder. I thought so hard that I needed to go to my quiet place, after punching out my rage and falling for an extremely long and painful time I came up with an idea.

Acronyms are super cool. But this couldn't be any acronym this had to be the most legit acronym. Then I thought of doing your name. Nope to unoriginal. Then I bought maybe a sentence. Sometimes I use "My mother is a good cook" for hangman. Nope to stupid. Then I thought, Mom gave me one of the things that I use most in life and that's an education. So in honor of you teaching me how to read hippopotamus here is your post:

I tried to think of some of the things that you and Dad gave up to have us kids. Sorry that some of them are lame or repetitive. Plus you ought to know it took me multiple hours so my brain was fried!

A – Alone time. Instead of having days of to just spend thinking or by herself she now always has someone around.

B – Beautifulness. Okay don’t take this the wrong way, I think my Mom is beautiful! What I mean by this though is just things that are supposed to “make you beautiful.” (i.e. facials, manicures, pedicures..etc)

C – Comfort. What I mean by comfort is she has grown through so much pain because of her kids. Whether it be giving birth to them or watching them make the wrong choice or having to “let go” of them.

D – Desires. She gives up the things that she wants for what we want.  

E – Exercising. Not saying my Mom doesn’t exercise but she did give up her time that she normally would have had to go to the gym to us.

F – Friends. I know that my Mom has friends; in fact, she has some really awesome friends. But how often does my Mom go and hang out with her friends?

G – Going out to eat. I’m positive that if my parents didn’t have us kids they wouldn’t make as many meals at home and they would eat out a lot more.

H – Husband. My Mother no longer has just a husband; she has a husband and a Father to her kids. Simply saying, she has to share him.

I – Immaturity. I’m not saying that if my parents didn’t have kids they’d be immature.  I just meant that now they have to be good examples 100% of the time and sometimes that’s not fun at all.

J – Job. Her job is now taking care of us and making sure we have what we need. She no longer gets a break or vacation she works 24/7/365.

K – Kitchen. She gave up a nice kitchen that she can make food for her and Dad and make food to give to others.

L – Longings. After Mom had us kids she could never really do all the things that she had hoped that she could do.

M – Ministry. Mom is giving to us kids instead of giving ministry to other people. If she didn’t have kids she would do so many more things with the Church and involved in a lot more.

N - Nice things. Instead of buying nice things they have to buy used junky things.

O – Obeyed. You may be like what? But I will tell you. If she didn’t obey God she wouldn’t have us awesome kids.

P – Projects. She doesn’t have a lot of time for things that she wants to do. And if she starts doing something she normally gets interrupted.

Q – Quote. “Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love.” ~Mildred B. Vermont

R – Riches. Mom and Dad could have had a lot more money if they didn’t have us kids.

S – Status. She could be an important person to tons of people. In its place she’s super important to 9 people.

T – Time. Mom gave us all her time. She stays at home, teaches us, and works for Dad.

U – Upkeep. Mom probably would have had a job if she didn’t have any kids and she would have had more money to do a lot more things with her house.

V – Vacations. My Mom’s vacation is packing up the van and driving all us kids somewhere; instead of packing her bags hopping on a plane and going to a romantic destination.

W – Writing. My Mom is a pretty good writer if I do say so myself. But she doesn’t write very much because she has to take care of us kids.

X – Xmas. (Dad don’t get mad at me! I needed a X). Mom gave up nice quiet little cute Christmas’ for insane and crazy ones.

Y – Yard. I know that my Mom would have liked a really nice little yard that she could keep up with and it make it pretty.

Z – Zucchini. Mom gave up the foods that she likes to eat to make us what we like to eat :).

Mom, I know you’re going to be all modest and like “Oh, it was worth it” and everything but seriously, thank you so much for giving up all that stuff to raise 8 crazy kids. You’re number  1!

Mom! Thanks so much for giving me 5 bucks when I read hippopotamus, that word now will always have special meaning. Thanks for making sure there was ALWAYS ice cream in the freezer, even if it did make us fat. And thanks for driving us around when we couldn’t drive.

Love you so much Mother!

Your baby girl, Drea