Celebrate Moms!

Today is a day for celebrating. Celebrating and recognizing the wonderful woman that chose to bring you into this world. Whether it's your biological, step, grand-, in-law, sister, aunt, or family friend... these women helped shape you into the person that you are today. Good or bad. Most people know my relationship with my mother is strong. It's the kind that transcends all obstacles and arguments. It hasn't always been that way.

While I've always loved my mother and found her to be my biggest inspiration, our relationship has not been without many traumatizing arguments and disagreements. Slammed doors, hurt feelings, the works! But something amazing happened once she released me to the "real world" (as they like to call it). Everything that she spent 18 years teaching me suddenly took flight. I was taking care of myself, paying my way, and really getting out on my own. Then we became best friends. I had to call her every single day (if we're being honest here, it was multiple times a day!) and she's the first person I rush to when I have big news. The way I look up to my sweet Momma can't be put into words.

She slaved many jobs to raise me on her own. She struggled to make sure I never did without. She instilled so many morals in me and if there was one thing she wanted me to know, it was to "always keep good credit!" (and that she loved me). She endured trafficking me to softball scrimmages, cheerleading practice, volleyball games and camps all around. She always welcomed my friends and stood behind me even when I made less-than-stellar decisions. And to this day, she remains my biggest fan. She stands up for me when someone comments poorly on my choice in body modifications; She keeps the 2008 issue of Seventeen magazine that I was in in her car; She's always raving on me. But what she should be proud of, is her parenting. A+ all the way. It was always just me and her. She didn't need a man to support her. She taught me that independence is key. She taught me how to "fly with my own wings" [read: my Latin chest piece tattoo]. She gave me her dark brown eyes and deep brunette locks, as well as her love for softball. I'm sporting the signature Hankins turned-up nose, too. (She also gave me her ghetto booty! Ha!) Mother's Day and Father's Day alike. I always celebrate this with this lady who managed to play both roles in my life.

I am my mother's daughter. And I couldn't be more proud.

(Momma, circa 2007)

(Momma, June 18, 1980)

She is the woman I look up to and aspire to be. If I'm half the mother she was, I'll consider myself a damn good lady.

So thank you, Momma. For being the most amazing woman on the planet. You deserve the world, and I'm so so happy that you're finally getting it.

And this foxy lady below... that's my Nana. A wonder woman herself! Raising 5 kids with a stubborn husband (my dear Papa who I love and miss dearly). The kickass female who I recently had my right calf tattooed for. She raised me when my Momma had to work and we always had a grand ol' time. No one could ever take her place.

"It happens the second Sunday of every May. We celebrate the women who give us life and so much more, the ones who protect us at all costs, who have the courage to fight those who would do us harm, who put our happiness ahead of their own, but mostly we celebrate a mother’s love which is constant, eternal, and there from the very beginning." -Desperate Housewives

"A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary." -Dorothy Canfield Fisher

"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us when adversity takes the place of prosperity when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts." -Washington Irving

xoxo