I love you Ma and Pa!

I could never even begin to write of how thankful I am for my mom and dad. Can anyone? There were us three girls on a little place out in the middle of no where. We had horses and from time to time cows, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens. Growing up where we did and in the life I did was amazing and I wouldn't want it any other way. We would play outside practically all day running from the orchard, to saddling up the horses and going for a ride to getting all those chores done.

When I was little my dad drove truck, long-haul. He would leave usually on a Sunday afternoon and be home Saturday night, just in time to go to bed, get up and go to church in the morning, eat a little lunch with the family and maybe get a nap in and start it all over again. There were definitely times where he didn't actually get to come home and it might of been 2 or 3 weeks at a time.

I remember being a junior in high school and it was Homecoming Week and I was on the powder puff team. Jodi was on the opposite team than I. We were warming up and Jodi and I looked over to the bleachers and there was dad! We had no idea he was home and was coming to the game. I also played sports all through junior high and high school and I know he would of been there for every single game if it had been possible. I remember him showing up to a few and it was so awesome when he could but usually he would call in the evening to get an update on our day and I would tell him about my games.

He worked so hard driving truck day and night - trying to get home to us girls. We never went without a thing EVER! We always did whatever sports we wanted and had whatever we needed all the time!

Obviously the whole time my dad was gone our mom was playing the part of mom and dad. I don't know if you can relate but having my husband gone for even a day or two puts me into a BIG stressed out mood! She worked at the Pharmacy in town and that was convenient because it was a block away from the schools. She was at every game, making sure we were getting homework done, fed and off to bed.

I can remember dad pulling out of the drive-way and it never failed something always went wrong as soon as he pulled out and my mom would have to deal with it. Either recruiting our Grandpa Bill or other men from our church to help out. From frozen faucets to broken down cars or pickups or needing firewood or hay, there was always something she had to deal with we could always count as those people to help. It would be so tough having all those stresses for years and years on end. I remember her being a little stressed but mostly I remember good times and lots of laughing and always feeling super safe and loved!

Later on, mom would usually leave the house at 6:30 or so in the morning to get to work where she was a secretary for a large waste management facility - so this meant that we also had to get ourselves on the bus. Of course we gave her a run for her money but over all we were good girls and took care of lots of things around the house and helped out. We all rodeoed so usually we would get home from school, exercise the horses and practice and then get done with that, sometimes we would start some type of dinner then do homework and off to bed.

When we rodeoed mom would usually be traveling with us and boy those were good times then when possible, dad would show up in the truck or come a little later and I do remember him being there quite a bit for our rodeos. BUT of course even there we had the fill in daddies who we could count on and mom was juggling recruiting of those daddies and all the stresses we had of competition and performing well.

I'm so thankful to say today that my dad did stop driving truck a few years after I left the house so one of my sisters did get a little more daddy time and dad didn't have to miss out on all of us. It was a hard deal for my dad not to be there for everything but bills had to be paid and God puts us in certain situations for reasons... my dad was a huge light for God while he was on the road as he still is today. Dad is now working at the same location as my mom and thankfully they get to ride to and from work. They are really like little honeymooners now that they finally get to spend all this time together.

It is such an amazing thing to see all the crap they had to go through and how strong it made them as people, their marriage and their spiritual walk with God. I count on their guidance every day and I'm so thankful for both of them. There isn't a day that I call mom and run some situation past her about how I might of should of reacted as a wife and she lines me out. Her encouragement is so valuable to me. It makes me step back and realize that Ben and I are going to have hard times but it can be done through God's strength and lots and lots of prayer. The Lord always provides and we always have each other no matter what.