For A Pretty Special Mom...

One of my favorite blogs recently started something I am quite excited about…a weekly writer’s workshop.  I am constantly looking for inspiration and motivation when it comes to my posts and this workshop will ensure that, at least once a week, I have something to write about.  So, in the spirit of trying something new, today’s post will be a response to a prompt courtesy of Little Things and Curiosities…here goes!

Prompt: Pick one specific thing that fascinates you about a mother in your life, whether that's your mom, a friend's mom, a grandma, an aunt, a sister, a neighbor, whoever. Let the writing flow in a natural direction, but keep that one special thing in mind as you go along.

Every year around this time I like to recognize my mom.  Last year I wrote my mother’s day post several days before I actually posted it because I wanted to make sure it was perfect.  And, if I’m being completely honest, I’ve already started working on this year’s Mother’s Day post as well.  But this, this is not that post. 

This is a post for a mom I’ve had the privilege to get to know recently.  A woman I've come to admire.  This is a post for the mother of the man I love, the man that I get to marry.  This is a post for my future mother-in-law, and what a lucky daughter-in-law I will be. 

When I was little and I imagined the family that I would marry into, I never even got close to imagining what has become a reality for me.  As an only child, I dreamed of having brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law and nieces and nephews.  But I never imagined how wonderful my parents-in-law could be, and I certainly never imagined that I would be treated so much like a part of the family so quickly and welcomed so openly. 

Stacy has made that happen for me.  She is a mom who loves her sons so deeply that her love spills over onto the women they love.  When I first got to watch her interact with her only current daughter-in-law, I was in awe of the relationship they had.  I couldn’t wait to be on the receiving end of all that love and friendship.  And then I blinked and I was there too.  Literally, all I did was blink.    

Stacy is a woman with a gift for making you feel at home.  She is a letter writer...a lost art that still lives at the tip of her pen.  She sends me cards “just because” and page-long notes to congratulate me on my engagement to her son.  She sends hand-written thank-yous and colorful thinking of yous.  She sends picture texts with the caption, “I bought us all beach bags” and voicemails saying “Happy Valentine’s Day”.  I save them all.  I hang what I can on my refrigerator to remind me of the wonderful family I am about to get to call my own.  And each time I see them or read them or listen to them, all I can do is smile.  I smile because not only am I blessed enough to have an incredible mother of my own, but I get to call another incredible woman my mother-in-law.  And having a mother-in-law that you not only like, but love, well, I’ve heard that’s pretty awesome.