Mother’s Day is a special time for me because I get to be thankful for both of my moms.  One thing about me that a lot of people may not know if that I was adopted as an infant.  I was born here in Garland and adopted out of Bunkner Children’s Home when I was a baby. So I have a birth-mom to be thankful for every year and then MY mom…the incredible woman who raised me….so much to be thankful for.

To the woman who gave me life….

I’ve never met you, but every Mother’s Day I think of you and I am so grateful.  The adoption agency brought me my file and told me a few things about you and my birth-dad.  I know that when you got pregnant with me you were young and not married.  I also know that for a time you strongly

considered abortion because you felt like you had no other option.  Thank you so much for hanging in there and carrying me for the 10 months that you did and actually giving me life…..the ultimate gift.  Without your selfless gift, my life and all that I do would never have happened.  Now I am blessed to be able to work with and serve pregnant moms on a daily basis and I’ve worked with many who were not married.  I have a soft spot in my heart for them because of you and can empathize with them and the decisions they are having to make.  One day actually, Cindy and I were at Panera eating breakfast (before Harper) and we picked on this particular day to eat outside on the patio area.  Well, it was a little windy so it was just us on one side and two women (one older and one younger) sitting on the other side from us.  As we got our food and were eating and talking we could hear the two women talking on the other side.  The older one said, “Please!! You can’t do this, I don’t care what they’ve told you, that’s a baby in there and this is murder!”.  To which the younger girl replied, “I just can’t have this baby, I just can’t do it.”  And so they went back and forth for a few minutes and I looked at Cindy and she said, “You HAVE to go say something….you’re the only one who can totally understand….”  So I got up, left my breakfast right there, and walked over to talk to the ladies on the patio with us.  As I walked up, they both stopped talking and looked at me like I was trying to sell them magazines or something…LOL.  I just said, “I’m so sorry to interrupt you guys and we weren’t eavesdropping, but we couldn’t help but overhear your conversation.”  I looked at the young, pregnant girl and I said, “I just wanted to come over and tell you that my birth mom was going to abort me too so I totally understand what you’re going through.  But instead of that, she gave me the most incredible gift ever….she gave me life. And because she did that, now I’m a doctor and married and we’re pregnant with our first baby….all because of her.  So speaking from the side of your baby….PLEASE reconsider.”  And I turned and walked off.  By the time I was done talking, we were all crying, the young mom, her friend (who as I was talking leapt across the table, grabbed the girls hands and said: “Don’t you SEE?!?  See the people God is placing in your path to tell you to not abort this baby!!”), I was crying and Cindy was of course sobbing like crazy across at our table.  We gave her a card and told her we specialized in pregnancy and if she ever needed any help, referrals, or advice just to let us know.  We never heard from her but I like to think about her and think that she had that baby and now that baby is Harper’s age and running around like crazy being awesome.  All that was because of you and the example you set for me as my birth mom from the very beginning.  So this mother’s day…thank you.

To my mom, the one who has to put up with me for life!

December 25, 1980 I was born.  You  guys always talk about how that was the most incredible Christmas ever because that’s the time you guys got the call that I was born and that you needed to head to Dallas to pick up your baby boy.  Everyone has always asked me if I just hated having a Christmas birthday and I always tell them “No”.  I don’t know why, but maybe it’s because of that story that I’ve always loved having my birthday then.  You guys always acted like Jenn and I were the ultimate gifts so I always pictured myself as another present under the tree and it just felt fitting.  I love you so much mom but I couldn’t just say “Thank You and I love you” without a trip down memory lane….

I’ll always remember our road trips when we were little.  Especially driving up the Wichita Falls to see Sammye Joe and Eddie.  It always felt like it was soooooo far (barely over 4 hours…lol).  You would always take the back seat out of our suburban and put the mattresses in the back so that we could lay down and play games or sleep or whatever.  It was like camping, but at 60 mph!! You would always have the car packed down like crazy with food because you refused to stop and pay for any along the way.  Admit it, you were (still are some… )  pretty cheap when we were growing up!  But even though you might give us the “You don’t need this” lecture a lot…there wasn’t very much that we ever wanted that you didn’t get for us.  Trips with you growing up I think were my favorite memories.  That’s why I love to travel so much because of you and Grandma.  Remember Florida?  When we went to Sarasota Beach and found all the sea shells?? That was awesome!  Thank you for taking so much time to travel with us.  I think it’s so important to take your kids places and get away with them and you were always doing that….

I loved as a kid going with you to Six Flags.  You were FEARLESS!!  All the other kids’ moms would wait in the line or on the side and watch them ride the rides, but not our mom!! You were right there with us: Texas Giant, Shockwave, Flashback (that was it back then)…you rode them all and laughed and raised your hands right along with us!  Remember when we went that year and there wasn’t anyone at the park so we would ride the Shockwave and then get off and run as fast as we could back to the front of the line and ride it again….16 TIMES IN A ROW!! LOL….I tell people about that every time Six Flags comes up.  Or when we were riding the Judge Roy Scream and Grandma was in the back with Jennifer and they stopped us on the first hill and Grandma goes, “Eeeeek!! Oh no! I just peed my pants!!” LOLOL And so we had to go let her clean up because she got so scared that we stopped….greatness.

Sports and competitions were awesome with you growing up too.  You NEVER missed one thing that Jenn or I ever did….EVER!  I always knew that I could look up and you’d be in the stands at my basketball games, or next to the court when I was playing tennis, or on the sidelines when I was shooting, or in the holding room when I was competing in UIL meets.  You always came…and better than that…you always had the good stuff.  Everyone (especially Jed) knew that when you pulled in to the parking lot that you had cookies and brownies and rice krispie treats and trailmix and anything else that you knew were our favorites.  So the second we were done competing we would all pile in the back of your suburban and eat and drink tea and lemonade you would bring while we blared the radio like we were so cool!  LOL  I was so proud all the time because everyone thought you were awesome.  They’d brag about your brownies all week until the next tournament and then we’d have 10 more kids over there eating…you could’ve sold them and made a fortune!

I loved as a teenager how you were always ready for me to bring a ton of friends over.  I don’t ever remember calling home and telling you I was on my way with the entire tennis team or basketball team and you saying, “No Jim Bob I think today isn’t a good day”.  You would always go: “Great! See you guys in a minute!”  and whenever we’d show up you’d be pulling trays and trays of hot chocolate chip cookies and brownies out of the oven for us and Jed would eat your cookies until he made himself sick!! He got sick on them every single time he came over because he ate so much, but he always said, “I don’t care, they’re so good I don’t want to stop eating them…”  Remember all the swim parties we had?  It seemed like at the start of school, we had people over swimming every single day.

I remember when I was going to my first county fair dance and had no idea how to dance at all so you go “Well, you can’t go and not know at least how to do the 2-step”.  So you cranked up the record player and taught me how to dance in the living room while you smiled and laughed and talked about how you and dad would go dance and see Willie Nelson live in concert back when he was clean shaven and would wear a suit down in Alpine,  Texas.  But then we I was older and we would go to weddings with dances, you acted like you were so embarrassed to be out on the dance floor and wouldn’t dance with me! Ha Ha!! So I would always go ask Grandma to dance and she would just light up….too funny.

Probably my most thankful memory of all our times growing up though was how diligent and consistent you were about making sure we knew who Jesus was and taking us to church and any and all events the youth group did.  My foundation in the word and my love of reading and studying the bible is because of you.  You would always read us bible stories growing up when we were really little (now I get to do that for Harper and I think about you every single time) and then when we got into high school you encourage us to read and study our bibles.  You would buy us so many books to read and then put them in the church library afterwards (since you were the librarian there).  Books were one thing we were always really close on, no matter what we disagreed about, books would bring us together.

Now I get to watch you with my kids and know that you were  and still are an incredible mom and now are an incredible Nana.  They are blessed to have you as their grandma like I’ve been blessed to have you be my mom.  Thank you for so many great memories and I can’t wait for all the ones we’re going to make with the kids in the years to come.  I love you so much….Happy Mother’s Day!

JB

Tags: grateful, memories, mom, Mother's Day, thankful