Mother's Day.

Mother's Day. A day of celebrating the women who made us who we are. They may have birthed us. They may have adopted us. They may have mentored us. 

Mother's Day. A day of pain and mourning. They may have abandoned us. They may have died on us. They may have angered us.

Mother's Day. I have celebrated and have mourned all of these feelings. 

Mother's Day. I am reminded of what I don't have. The woman who birthed me.

Mother's Day. I am reminded of what I do have. A tribe of woman who have made me who I am today.

Every year Mother's Day has a different emotion but every year I am more and more thankful. See losing your mother, never gets easier. There will always be a void that lingers.

My mother had Multiple Sclerosis, a disease that attacks your nervous system. And in my mother's case, it was debilitating and paralyzed her. Many of you know that my mother passed when I was 13 years old, but what many people don't know is the years of pain and suffering she went through. I don't only mean the physical pain she experienced, but the emotional and spiritual pain of watching her daughter grow up without her direct and daily influence. 

The stories I hear about who she was, from friends and family, I never got to experience. In fact, I really only knew my mother as a woman with MS. Trapped inside her own body. The radiant, full of life and a bold personality is not the mom I knew.  However, there was one thing that I did know and that was her love for me. She lit up when I was in the room. It was like she could feel my spirit as soon as I walked down the hall. Even her last couple of days here on earth, she could not speak or barely move, but that smirk on her face was always still there when she felt my presence. A woman's intuition is not joke... ESPECIALLY with her children.

As I said earlier, each year I feel a different emotion with Mother's Day. This year I am thankful for a mother's sacrifice. Mother Teresa said, "A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, and must empty ourselves." When I think about this quote, I think about my own mother. While many of her sacrifices may of not of been the ones she would have chosen, they are the ones that helped contribute to the woman I am today. My mother didn't chose to be diagnosed with MS but her health was most certainly sacrificed. See our mothers sacrifice every day for us, most of the time getting unnoticed or even thanked. We attribute their sacrifices as part of their motherly duties and while it might be, it is the one job duty we should really be the most thankful for. There are also sacrifices that happen to them indirectly, that ultimately is out of their hands. But whatever cards they are dealt, they work through it. They do their best even if it doesn't seem like it. Their sacrifices get embedded into us.

What does a mother's sacrifice do? It creates resilience. It creates independence. It creates solitude. It makes us stronger. It encourages those around her to flourish and ultimately, makes the world a better place. Cheesy, I know. But so true. Think about your own mother and even in the midst of chaos, there was a time she sacrificed something to ensure everything was okay.

So thank you to those mother's who have sacrificed something for me. Maybe it was time, maybe it was money, maybe it was an act of service. Regardless of what it was, I am probably more thankful than you could ever imagine. Your sacrifice for myself and those around you don't go unnoticed. Happy Mother's Day.

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Below are pictures from the MS Walk that I attended back in April sponsored by the San Diego County Credit Union. You can learn more about Multiple Sclerosis from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society The causes of the disease are unknown and many individuals and families are impacted by the disease. When you can, support your local MS Society to work towards a one day MS free world!