thanksgiving - day seventeen.

Fourteen has the potential to rank as one of the most awkward years of life.  Decisions about learning a second language, who to expose your secret crushes to, and whether or not you are cut out for the basketball team are around every corner.  When each day seems to carry with it the fragility of the unknown, something about coming home to the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, a two-arm hug, and a listening pair of blue eyes serves as a reminder that a woman of Strength stands in your corner.  It would seem impossible that she walked through the same moments of adolescent youth only twenty four years ago.

After picking us up from school one afternoon, my parents gathered everyone into the living room to explain that my untouchable heroine had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  My world froze.  How could this invincible person require treatment for something more than a common cold?  Superwoman was about to face her kryptonite as the chemotherapy would temporarily rob her of her gorgeous blonde locks. I lay in bed that night and cried myself to sleep.  My imagination drifted to graduating from high school and planning my wedding without her, but I always had the deep-seated hope that God was in control.

Strength is defined as "one that is regarded as the embodiment of protective or supportive power; a support or mainstay."  Today, I am thankful for this remarkable woman that I am blessed to call both "Mama" and "friend."  Thirteen years later, it stands as no surprise to me that she continues to rejoice with me in times of celebration, intercede in moments of loneliness and pour out words of encouragement, even in my least shining moments.  I will forever love her to the moon. . . and beyond!!!