I am blessed...

Besides having a wonderful mother, I have been blessed to have some amazing women in my life who were and are mother figures to me. I feel like God made it possible to have these women in my life at times when I really needed them.

Back when I was 19, my mom and I were living with my grandmother. Well, I was 19 and a bit rebellious, mom was seriously dating a man that she would eventually marry and grandma had the tough task of being in the middle of it all. When I felt that I could no longer live with confusing rules and the input of a man who was not my father, I decided to move out. My best friend at the time was a guy named Kerry who had an awesome mom. Steph was a single mom who was ultra cool and told it like it was. We had become close because I was always at their house and when I told her that I wanted to move out, she offered me the opportunity to rent a room in her house.

It was an experience that changed my life.

For a year I lived with Steph and learned what it was like to be independent - that it wasn't all about me and that there were responsibilities that went with living on your own and that I had no right to be such a brat at times. Steph treated me like an equal and let me know when I was screwing up but she also encouraged me and praised me when I did right. I grew up so much during that time and I feel like had I not had that time, I would not have been able to handle the transition of living with my husband.

Anyway, the last time that I had seen Steph was at my wedding in 1991. We recently reconnected on Facebook (gotta love it!) and the other day she sent me a message saying how she loves getting these little snippets of my life, but she'd really like to talk to me. So I sent her my phone number and she called me on Sunday. I was so excited!! It was wonderful talking to such a dear friend and it seemed like 19 years just disappeared. She is presently in Florida visiting family and will be driving up to New York next month. We are trying to work it out that she can stop here on her drive.

Can I just say how psyched I am about that!! I am just hoping and praying that it all works out and how AWESOME is it that she would even want to stop and see me! I mean, I was a self-centered brat at that point in my life and yet she still loved me enough to want to help me and still loves me enough to want to see me and see how my life is. She was an amazing mentor and she is my adopted mom and I love her.

Yeah, me!