Being Brave

I am so far behind on my blogging endeavors not only because of the lack of a computer but also my crazy hectic life. I wish I had time to post a new and enlightening excerpt from my life everyday but here and there will have to suffice for now.

I really enjoyed reading my friends' blogs on the topic of bravery. I honestly can't think of a shining moment in my own life when I would consider myself to have been brave but I thought of someone else's bravery that I have benefited from.

My Mom.

As many of you know, I am extremely close to my mom. As I get older, I am gaining a better understanding of what an incredible lady she is. Also, being a mother myself, I find myself admiring my own mom more and more as I think about what she dealt with on a daily basis as a young mother. I can sit in pity for myself when I think I'm having a bad day and then I think, "What in the world do you have to complain about!" Here's a brief bio of my mom.

She was only 20 when she had her first baby, my brother Tim, and was married to my dad who was in the Air Force. She was moving all over the country with his base changes, constantly having to make new friends, accomodate herself to a new area, just in time to move again. She had her 2nd baby 2 years later and he was born premature, my brother Jeff. My dad goes off to the Vietnam War (can you even imagine being 22 or 23 with 2 babies and your husband is off at war?) and she is living away from her own family. When my brother Jeff was 5 years old, he was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophe. He was confined to a wheelchair by the time he was 9. I think it was 2 years before he was in a wheelchair that my oldest brother Tim started having seizures and was diagnosed with Epilepsy. He eventually needed to take 17 pills a day to control his seizures and was still having them on top of all that medication. So as a young mother, both of her children have these serious medical conditions. I can't begin to imagine the coping skills needed for such a demanding role. It was after her first 2 babies that she started taking the missionary discussions. No one in her family was a member and she was discouraged from joining the church. She knew it was true and had to convince her parents, brothers, and husband that she knew she should join the church. I know I'm not giving her conversion story justice with my short version but she did join the church and my dad joined 2 years later. Needless to say I think my mom is brave. Later, she had 4 more children in a span of only 5 years - brave again! So her situation consisted of 6 children, her 2 oldest needing medical attention, tests, medications, visits to specialists, and always having another baby in tow! (I am #4 out of 6) I know now that it takes a remarkable person to have been trusted with all that responsibility. I can't even imagine the roller coaster of emotions she dealt with on a daily basis. Especially not having any family history of either epilepsy or Muscular Dystrophe anywhere in our family. It was so brand new for her. She didn't have the internet at her fingertips like we take for granted now. She had to trust the doctors and the snippets of information she would get from them as she saw them - for 2 separate conditions! As a mother myself, I am in awe of what her experience was as a young mother.

So, here I am now, the first one in my family to be born in the covenant, having the church my entire life because of the braveness of my mom. I have no idea if I wasn't born in the church if I would have sought out the gospel myself. I would like to think I would have but luckily, I'll never have to test myself to see if I would. My mom did it for me. She started that branch on our family tree and I hope she realizes the amount of people who are, were, and will be directly affected because of her faith.

I love my mom to pieces and am forever grateful for her example, her faith, her diligence, her love and especially for being brave.