Day 126 - Mother's Day

Well, this entry is going to be a day late. I had been planning this entry all week, but I ended up getting very sick from something I ate at an outdoor craft festival Saturday. I'm not as young as I used to be, and apparently Mini Donuts, Fried Pies and Corn-on-the-Cob-on-a-Stick should not all be consumed within a one hour period of one another. My Mother's Day was less than stellar! LOL!

When a person thinks about the word "Mother" or "Mom", it's a very subjective word. You think of your own mother. Or you think about famous women in history that you have known. Or you may even think about the media's representation of what a "mom" should mean, especially since we were all supposed to go and spend big bucks on our moms this week and heartstrings have probably been especially pulled in that direction.

I don't know what your mom means to you, but when I think about my mom, I think the word "hero" sums her up pretty well. I'm adopted, and I put that woman through a bunch of crap. She and my dad got me when I was two and if the word "holy terror" didn't exist before me, it would have had to be invented to define me. Every day was literally a new adventure for them. And when I use the word "adventure" I use it in the hiding the matches, locking cupboards, making sure the scissors were in a high cabinet sense.

One Mother's Day, my brother and I decided to surprise Mom with breakfast in bed. We went into the kitchen, and we were making toast with juice. I'm not really sure how you can screw up toast with juice, but we manage to accomplish it. Somehow within minutes, smoke was rising out of the toaster. Well, instead of just throwing the toast away, and starting out fresh, we started scraping off the burnt part of the toast. Kind of an ironic message to send your mom on Mother's Day, huh? She tells us now that she and my dad could hear us back in the bedroom and they were just giggling at us -- and that finally she sent him in the kitchen to tell us to just make new toast. That's a hero - and that's my mom.

On this Mother's Day, I want to tell you about another hero. Her name is Shelia Biffle. She is the Treasurer for the Senatobia, Mississippi Family Readiness Group - and she is treasurer for that group not because her husband is currently deployed either (he's retired Guard), she just wants to help out and support families. Shelia Biffle came up with an idea - she decided that it would be a nice thought if the soldiers in the 155 BCT (that's the unit that Al is deployed with) could have paper cards to send their moms for Mother's Day.

Then she had to take that thought and find somebody who was willing to make the donation make it possible. Shelia contacted NUMEROUS big name card companies and none of them would offer her anything. Then she found Howard Lord - of the Paramount Card Company out of Rhode Island - www.paramountcards.com. Mr. Lord is a military veteran and the print manager for the company. Mr. Lord's military service in the Navy would be enough for me to like him, but his huge donation makes me LOVE him!! I guess that time on a ship holding letters from home made him realize what that one card from one soldier in Iraq could do for one mom/hero back here in the states. Thank you Mr. Lord for opening up your heart and your pocketbook!!

Well, after Shelia got those cards in the mail, they weren't all neatly ready to go. She had to package them up in little bundles -- and get them sent to each individual camp - and each card had to get matched up with each envelope -- and this had to get done in a very short time frame. And then don't forget that it all had to get sent International Mail. When those guys got those cards, and then were able to write a nice note to all the moms in their lives, it happened thanks to Mr. Lord and Shelia Biffle - if either one of them hadn't have done what they did, some heroes back home this year would have had a lot less happy of a Mother's Day.

I tell you all this to say that heroes are the people that make stuff happen in our lives. My mom is my hero because she made stuff happen for me. She got my butt out of bed every morning and put up with me moaning and groaning all the way even though I'm sure she would have much rather have wiped me off the face of the planet. I make stuff happen for my daughter Emelia. I get her "molk" every morning - and I press play on the VCR to make "Boo's Coos" come up. I am there every sunshine and every sunset -- for the good, the bad, and the ugly -- and I hope someday, somewhere -- that if she's somewhere that she can't buy me a Mother's Day card, that someone will be nice enough to send her one for me.

Thank you again to Sheila and to Howard and to all the Moms who got cards - and those who didn't, all of you are heroes in my book!!

http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2005/05/07/mothers_get_cards_from_soldiers_in_iraq/