My parents are pretty much the most awesome parents in the world. They were young when they married and had us. There were times I'm sure they never imagined their lives working out in the way everything unfolded. By the time my parents were 22 they had three children and were living a few hundred miles from home. Not quite how I would imagine my life. I know life wasn't easy with the three of us; we were pretty rambunctious children. Often they found themselves away from their family with none of the natural supports to help when dad was away. They did the best they could with everything they had and there were times I'm sure they didn't quite know how they would make all the ends meet.
Somehow though they managed to make the ends meet together. We never went to bed hungry, or at least hungry without making a choice to not eat. Mom always said she wasn't a short order cook and if we didn't like what she fixed we didn't eat dinner. Dad was a hard worker. He wasn't always there because of the military, but when he was home he was home. We didn't have much growing up. We infrequently got the expensive toys, but those we got were well played with and cherished. We may not have had all the material things in life, but they gave us everything we needed: love, kindness, honesty, truthfulness, choices, opportunities to fail. I said that once during a conference, the best thing my parents gave us was an opportunity to fail and everyone nodded and agreed. For me that is what I am most thankful. I'm thankful they taught me how to stand on my own two feet and the ability to make decisions and know that if they didn't work out that in the end it would all be okay because no matter what they loved me and were proud.
Awww!!! Dude, when my mom was 26, she had three kids and was moving to Germany! Not sure how she managed that! Our parents rock. True story.
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