Dear Mama..

Dear Mama, you are appreciated.
*anyone that knows anything about life starts singing Tupac right now*
I want to tell you why you are appreciated. Of course there are all the cliche things we thank you for, like cooking supper and kissing our boo boos, but I'm here to tell you the real things we thank you for.
1. You always let me crawl in bed with you, whether I was five and I was having nightmares or I was eighteen and my period was getting the best of me. You always snuggled me until I fell asleep.
2. You bought me that dress. For pageants, for Easter Sunday, for prom, for the hell of it. You went without so that I always felt beautiful.
3. You fought for me. Even when I was wrong. You had my back under no circumstances.
4. You followed my every move. You were by my side on my first day of school and you were dragging me out of places I didn't need to be.
5. You spanked me and you made me eat soap. When I was shooting my sister with the paintball gun and when I was lying to you. You taught me that there will always be consequences to my actions.
6. You answered me every time I yelled your name.
7. You held my hand. When I fell off my bike and when I was in labor. You never let it go.
8. You kept me in church. And gave me and all my peeps a guilt trip when we didn't want to go.
9. You never stopped praying. For me. For my dad. For my friends. For my enemies.
10. You welcomed me back with forgiving arms every single time I messed up.
11. You love not only me and my siblings unconditionally but you love people that don't deserve your love.
12. You never let me leave without me knowing how much you loved me.

I sit back and I look into the eyes of my children and I know now. I know the pain I caused. I know the hurt. I know the happy. I know the love.
I used to look at some people's kids and think "how could they stand there and let that happen, how could she not kick him out, let her go, wash her hands from them?"
I know now.
I know why you never gave up on me.

and for that, you are appreciated.
Happy Mother's Day to the best mom in the world.

All That I Am ,
Katie ♡