Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also praises her:
“Many women have done noble deeds,
but you surpass them all!”

Proverbs 31:28-29

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day.

And for many Mother’s Day gives rise to a mix of emotions. One emotion is sadness. Because some of us mourn the loss of our mothers. My Mom passed away of cancer in June 2011–nearly ten years ago. I miss her. There are so many things I wish I could talk to her about or ask her. So many questions. And my kids–especially my sons–never really had the opportunity to know her.

And my Mother-in-Law passed away in December of 2014 of cancer. She was amazing, and she and my wife were best friends. She was also extremely close to our daughter. Our sons still miss her very much too. She was also a confidante of mine.

Losses still near enough to have a very real affect on us in the present. No doubt many of you feel the same way.

At the same time, Mother’s Day is also about joy. I am married to a wonderful woman, who is also a wonderful mother to our three children. So we get to celebrate her. Our kids make homemade Mother’s Day cards. We make a special meal. Give her a few gifts. We do our best to make sure she knows she’s loved and appreciated. Without a doubt, she deserves more than we can say or do.

For my wife, being a mother has had its share of challenges. During the second trimester of her pregnancy for our daughter, she experienced a very serious depression. With our twin sons, she had to have a caesarian section two months before their due date because she had developed hellps syndrome. After the delivery, she was in ICU for a few days. Her condition was quite serious for a time. Not to mention that our sons were in the NICU for 7 weeks and that there were some moments of touch and go with them too.

Now our daughter is 16 and our sons are 12. Those years hold a lot of memories, history, and emotions. As a mother, my wife isn’t perfect. But she needn’t be. No one is. And yet I still think she is the strongest, smartest, most committed mother I know. No one has cried harder or laughed louder because of her kids. In my eyes, she is a hero. I am in absolute awe about how our lives have been knitted together into the crazy, never-dull family that we are. And she is at the center of it all.

Reflecting on Mother’s Day is very much to reflect on life, our lives, and to experience both joy and sorrow, gratitude and loss. Mother’s Day is a reminder that each of us has (or have had) important people in our lives who are (or have been) there for us, who shape (or have shaped) us, hold (or who have held) us, and who cry (or who have cried) with us and for us.

So I am grateful for my Mom, for my late Mom-in-Law, and now, and most of all, for my wife. While many women have done amazing, wonderful things, for me she surpasses them all. Could I ever think otherwise?

Happy Mother’s Day, Alisha.