59 things I love about my mom

In honor of my mom's 59th birthday, 59 things I love about her:
(Disclaimer: the following list is in no particular order and lacks parallel structure.)

1. Her undying devotion to her family
2. Her tenacity
3. All the times I found her sitting on the sofa in the little living room with her coffee and her Bible
4. Her willingness to get in the trenches
5. That she went on every field trip
6. That said field trips included driving all the way around the state of GA with a van full of 7th and 8th grade students . . . I bow in awe
7. The way she stepped up and created a youth group when we were teenagers
8. How she opened our home to our friends
9. That she got involved in everything we did growing up
10. Her willingness to let part of our yard be turned into a swamp for mud wrestling
11. How she's met with the same three women to pray for her children for the past 21 years
12. That she'd rather cut off her arm than miss a phone call
13. Her presence with me during the birth of all of my children
14. That I know she'd do absolutely anything to help me
15. The way she stayed at my house for a few nights when I came home with each of my babies even though we lived in the same town
16. How she let me live on her couch when I could barely function from morning sickness
17. Her love for her children
18. Her love for my children
19. Her love for my dad
20. How she models a great marriage
21. Her inability to sit quietly in the passenger seat of a car
22. That she has become willing to sit in the back seat with a book instead of in the front where we might kill her
23. That she continued to let me drive as a teenager after all of the things I backed into or rear-ended
24. That she loved my friends and loved having them around
25. Letting us take friends with us on family trips to the beach
26. Taking us so many places when we were growing up
27. That she always mispronounces the word "prescription"
28. Her aversion to change . . . at least that never changes
29. The way she would stop at Burger King to get me and Jen a chicken sandwich after we'd had her paged at the grocery store
30. How she regularly left money at a grocery store so that a poor family we knew could buy groceries
31. How she did this so discreetly that I didn't know about it until I was much older
32. Her generosity
33. The way she loves to give gifts
34. How she forgives
35. That she has been to my house in Pennsylvania five times since I moved here less than two years ago
36. That she took care of Joshua so I could work part-time when he was a baby
37. The way she made "helping with her grandchildren" her priority
38. All the times she met me in a parking lot so she could sit with the kids in the car and I didn't have to drag three kids (ages 3 and under) into a store with me
39. Her love of Country's salads and unsweet tea
40. That we love to go to movies together
41. The ways she says almost every movie in the world "started out a little slow"
42. How she can't help commenting on movies as we watch them and still loves me if I yell at her for it
43. What a loyal friend she is
44. That she gets me a chocolate raspberry truffle ice cream cake from Brusters for my birthday every year
45. Her love of reading - I'm sure I have her to thank for mine
46. That she was a stay-at-home mom and never gave us the impression that she was missing out on anything else
47. For sticking up for me
48. For being my biggest fan and cheerleader
49. How I knew she was praying for me during every law school final exam
50. For reading my blog and telling everyone else to :)
51. The way she admits her mistakes and gave us the freedom to do so
52. That she rearranged her schedule to stay in Pennsylvania when Ethan had a bike accident
53. That she sat by my bedside and took care of me after my surgery
54. How she allowed my boys to move in with her afterward while I was recovering
55. Her tirelessness
56. The way she can never sneeze only once . . . I inherited that, too
57. Her strength of character
58. How she taught me by example
59. THAT SHE IS THE BEST MOM IN THE WORLD!!

Happy birthday mom. You're my hero, and I love you.