Family. The Kind I Didn't Come From.

While I cannot be as specific as I'd like at this time, I am having overwhelming feelings of love for my Mother-In-Law today. What a truly great person. And although I know my mom is my favorite, my husband's mom is a close second. I really lucked out, as we have all heard the jokes and complaints before...they eye-rolling "in-laws" comments, the rants, the family implosions. Hell, I honestly believe that I have better in-laws than some people have actual blood-relatives. (Oh, and don't get me wrong, somewhere down the chain of my husband's family are people I'd like to spend less alone time with Joran Van der Sloot at this point.) But luckily, those are few and far between and I totally lucked into some really great relatives that have adopted me as one of their own.

Today, however, is my mom-in-law's turn. When DH and I got too sick to take care of ourselves earlier this year, she didn't ask but informed us that she was on her way to pick up little man from daycare and keep him for the night so that we could recover. She brought us gatorade and chicken soup, had prescriptions filled, and just took care of it so that we didn't have to. No guilt, no questions asked, just an honestly selfless act. And this was before we sent him on overnight trips because he was still waking at least once or twice a night. No complaints from her.

This is a woman that had my entire family rolling in laughter as she told the story of how at 3 years old, my husband discovered his "junk" for the first time. He was riding his little tricycle around the kitchen naked before bathtime (the love for naked baby time runs deep in our family) when as he was getting off, he spotted "IT". He looked up at his mother with horror and said, as if a pest had attached itself to him, "What ISTHAT?!"

In fact, all of her stories have us laughing when she tells them and my own mother always talks about how she has such a knack for storytelling. And how you can hear the love for her children in her voice when she talks about them. Her sons are somehow both Mama's boys, but not the annoying, always have to call their mom before making a decision kind. More like they respect their mother's fairness and seek her opinion for important things. She somehow is able to give advice without being intrusive.

I don't want to share too much because some of our family is, in fact, private, but she is just a wonderful person. I remember being so scared to meet her when hubby and I had been dating for about three months. Would she judge me? Would she think I was too slutty for her son? Too loudly, obnoxiously flamboyant? (If Jacob brought home a girl like me that's what I'd be doing.) Would she spend our dinner's together Bible-thumping and feeling like I wasn't good enough for her son because I didn't believe in the religion they did? None of those things occured.

In fact, she has been a big part of my journey back to Christianity. Never judging, never pushing, never telling me I was wrong or ridiculing me, just being there in case I had questions, and using her own life to demonstrate a non-hypocritical Christian.

So today, I am celebrating the fact that I have two awesome mothers to look up to, to go to for advice and love and comfort, and to show my son what growing up with two of the most awesome grandmothers in the world feels like. I had that growing up, and I'm so glad that he will experience the same. Instead of having favorites, he will love his grandmothers as equally as I did, because they both love him so much!