Thanks for being mine - Day 4

Day 4: Your parents

I'm convinced that God blessed me with the absolute best parents in the world. Were they perfect? Of course not, how many of you...I meannnn...us are?

Did they make me furious, push my buttons, tell me "not only no, but hell no!" and embarrass me?

On several occasions.

Did they love, support, teach, feed, clothe, encourage, guide, tolerate and build me up?

Again, yes, on several occasions, sometimes while they were making me furious, pushing my buttons, telling me no and embarrassing me.

As a child I looked to them for all of those necessities a child needs from her parents. As a teen, I mainly looked to them for money. As an adult, I found friends – two special people who knew, loved, understood and respected me for the person I was becoming.

They taught me how to live: Granted, I was ten years old before they took me somewhere where I could ride my first escalator, about the same age when I finally learned how to ride a bike without training wheels and at 17 I finally got a job where I didn't take naps during an 8-hour shift...good grief, they're lucky they ever got me to move out of the house! But we always had some sort of family time. There were times to work, but also time for God, traditions, family and friends and making memories.

They taught me how to laugh: Look at these two clowns!

Is there any wonder I turned out the way I did? We are never short for laughter in this family.

And most importantly, they taught me how to love: I never wonder if my parents love me. I'm still convinced I'm the favorite. After all, I had them all to myself during four years of high school and they still claimed me as their own. Hugs, kisses and "I Love You's" were never far away. There wasn't a recital, ballgame, art show, program, banquet, bake sale or CYO fundraiser that they missed. They've listened to me cry on the phone while hundreds of miles away from home and provided the pervertible shoulder to cry on or those perfectly timed words a girl just needs to hear, like, "Wouldn't it feel good if you could just tell those people to go to hell?" "Yes, Dad, that is exactly what I wish I could do."

I've seen their marriage vows lived out – in sickness and in health, for better for worse, until death do us part – and know their relationship with God is what got them through those times.

So I guess to any of you parents out there, just starting out or entering the dreaded teen years: You'll be loved for the things you give them, just as much as you're later loved for the things you didn't give them. Those young eyes and ears are taking in everything you do, because until it seems uncool, they want to be just like you.

Thanks for being mine, Mom and Dad.