Today I am dedicating my blog post to one of my heros. This gal is simply the best. I can't imagine my life without her and I am so lucky to call her...my mom.

Where can I even start with how great my mother is? She has been there for me when I am happy and when I am sad. She has given me advice and has been there to wipe away the tears when I didn't take it and things did not turn out well. She is truly a gift from God.

Today I am especially proud. My mom has overcome so many obstacles in her life and came out smiling but this one in particular was really hard and she took it like a champ. Let me tell you a little about it.

My mom married at a very young age and shortly after started the family with my older sister Kristin. I guess Kristin was a little too much to handle because they waited another 9 years to have me. (lol jk Kristin...LOVE YOU!) While my mom was busy raising a young family she realized that she needed to go to school in order to have a career. She followed my dad to mortuary school where she then became a Funeral Director. I might be a little biased but I think that I can say with full confidence that she was one of the greatest Funeral Directors ever. She cared so much about each person that came into the funeral home and I remember her coming home and telling us stories of people that she had met. My mom touched many lives in her 20 something years of being a funeral director. She has helped several family members deal with loss and has been a blessing to everyone that she meets. She truly used her gift of compassion to bless others in their time of need. My mom always said that being a funeral director was her ministry and she was right. It takes a certain person to be able to sit with a grieving family and help them make arrangements for their loved ones.

After working in the same profession for so long you can understand her shock when she learned that the company that she worked for was closing down and that she needed to find another profession. While most people would find this news traumatic and not know how to deal with things my mom (although she was sad) said no to a pity party and started trying to figure out what the next step was.

The next few months were hard but I am so blessed to say that my God is a mighty God. Every step my mother took was blessed by God. He guided her right to where he wanted her. My mother has always been good at decorating and putting things together. She is also great at selling stuff. So what better job for her than real estate? She was introduced to the idea from a friend and then was blessed with a job offer after she completed real estate school.

Now any normal 50+ woman might have heard the word school and would have given up then. But my mom didn't let that stop her. She pulled up her boot straps and signed up for school. Online school was tough and she did struggle to find the time to do classes with my little sister bopping around from place to place and activity to activity. After a meeting with her new job they offered her schooling in an actual classroom where she would finish quicker than online. God provided the funding for that and off she went.

During this time she travelled back and forth from San Antonio to do her classes. Now San Antonio is about an hour from where my mom lives and gas prices are not necessarily low right now but God knows what he is doing. When I left for England I left my parents with my little car. Now she could get back and forth from San Antonio without spending a fortune. I just love how God provides. After she finished classes she had to take her test and then that was it. She would be a realtor. Well today...SHE PASSED!!!!

I cannot explain how proud I am of my mom. She is truly my hero. She overcomes so many obstacles and when Satan is starring her in the face saying "give up" she punches him in the face and says "not today bucko." I see so much of myself in her and I am blessed to know that she passed down her resilience to me and helped make me strong.

I know that my mother has always been proud of my accomplishments and I think that she has seen them as outweighing her own but honestly I think that she has done more than I ever could. I am so proud to call her my mother and I am blessed to be able to see the hand of God working in her life.

Now go sell some houses mom! Love you!