my mother

    Every year when her birthday comes around, I find myself at a loss for words.

    I'm so stunned and humbled by the fact that such an extraordinarily intelligent woman would choose
    to spend her life carrying and feeding and cleaning and educating and counseling me.

    She's taught me to think critically, to read carefully, to write clearly, to learn passionately, to work
    diligently, to love selflessly, to speak patiently, to correct gently, to confess humbly.

    She's taught me that being a woman isn't about my body, my clothes, or my things. That being a    
    woman is about being a person. And that being a person is about loving God and serving others.

    Mom, I can't tell how influential these lessons were and are. And I think they've affected me so much
    because you didn't just say them. You lived them.

    So thank you. Thank you for twenty-one years of the most selfless friendship I've ever experienced.
    I'm still trying to find the words to say how much they've meant to me.