What do a Science Teacher, a Super Hero, and The Most Beautiful Woman Alive Have in Common?

They're all my mom!

Okay so that's pretty cheesy, but my mom is literally the best.

I have a few experiences to share:

Mom puts up with my selfies 

So first of all when I was on the way to the airport to fly home from my mission my mission president handed me a cell phone and told me to call my mom. The second I stammered out a "Mom?" my mom's first words were "Shannon?! What can I do to help make your transition home the best that it can be?" She just wanted me to be okay. She didn't complain about the short notice that she would have to drive an hour to the airport to pick me up, then an hour back. My mom had found out that I was coming home at about ten o'clock that morning and she had unpacked all the totes that she had packed the week before, putting everything away in drawers and making my bed so that I didn't come home to an empty room.

My mother hasn't thought of herself in twenty years. For Mother's Day and her birthday we always try to get her something that she has to use for herself. If we get her a gift card to a clothing she will always end up buying something for us. Same goes for food or literally anything else we can buy her. She is the most selfless person on the planet. She read to us every night from the time my oldest sister was born to the time my littlest sister was about ten. She still reads to her on occasion. Does it take a lot of time and energy to get four kids to sit and listen to a chapter of a book every night? You betcha. Did she do it every single day? Absolutely.

When we were little my brother expressed that he thought busses were cool. He had never been on a bus, but they had that weird slinky thing in the middle which he thought looked super awesome. In an extraordinary act of patience and love my mother packed us all snack bags and took all four of her children (between ages one and seven) on a bus ride. We sat in the middle where the slinky part was. We marveled every time the bus turned a corner and one side of the bus turned before the other. We ate our snack bags. Would it have been easier to stay at home and have us all entertained by some television program? absolutely! Would that be an experience that I still remember sixteen years later? No. She found an activity that interested her kids, was a way to explore the world around them, and was most likely not an activity covered in parenting books. My mom is a creative genius.

We go hiking a lot 

Skip forward thirteen years to when my mom found out that two of her daughters suffered from anxiety. My mom, having never suffered from a mood disorder, didn't really understand them. She didn't assume we would just "snap out of it." She read about other peoples' experiences and tried to understand what it was like for us. She made sure that we got help, that we talked to medical professionals, and she encouraged in actions that helped us to cope with our anxiety.  My mother was (and is) patient, kind, and understanding even though she couldn't fully understand what we were going through.

I could go on forever. I truly believe that my mother doesn't have a single selfish bone in her body. I truly appreciate everything she has done for me and everything she has taught me. My mother is everything I hope to be as an adult. She makes everything possible no matter how difficult. She is an inspiration to everyone she meets.

Mom, I love you.