"Describe Your Relationship With Your Parents"

This is one post that I've been wanting to write for a long time, and so obviously I was incredibly excited when I saw it on the list. My parents are basically superheroes. Like, seriously.

I really have been blessed with a good and strong relationship with both of my parents. I think a lot of it goes back to the fact that they have a great relationship with each other. Seriously, they really do. After almost 35 years of marriage, I've heard both of them say that it gets better and better with time and practice, and that they love each other more now than they did before. Talk about #relationshipgoals, I'm telling you. Every time I see that hashtag on Twitter or Instagram, I just laugh and think, "let me tell you about my parents..." They have a marriage that makes everyone else want to get married and have a great marriage too!

 I had to add a picture of them and my mom's family while they were dating (or maybe already engaged?) because they're just plain adorable. My dad's the cool kid in the grey suit, and my mom is the gorgeous girl to the right of him, with curly brown hair.

 Here's them a few years ago. They both say they don't like this picture, but I think it's adorable because they look so happy together. Plus, both of them never like pictures taken of them, so their opinion ceases to count. And it's my blog, so I do what I want.

So, I actually have another one of these where my dad is making a face and my mom has her heard thrown back, laughing, but I know that my dad especially would protest if I posted that, so I put this one up instead. (Here their opinions count, because I will be in trouble otherwise. It's fun being someone's daughter, no?)

There are many things that Jesus has smiled on me with in my life, but one of the biggest ones, by far, is my immediate family. Things have always been less than perfect, I spent most of high school avoiding them or disobeying them, and I still struggle to open up to them sometimes, but there's one thing that always outshines all of that: my parents exhibit unconditional love to me. Always.

So, as far as describing my relationship with them, I'll go "ladies first" and start with my mom.

When I was little, my mom did a lot of "typical mom things," like sewing clothes for me, taking me to exciting places that I wanted to see, and doing fun things with me in and out of school. But the best part about her being my mom has come in the past few years that I've been in college.

 This is a picture taken right after I graduated high school. Looking back, I can see how I was a very challenging child during a good portion of high school. I resented a lot of the rules that my parents made, didn't socialize with family much, and was running around with the wrong group of people. And yet, my mom hung in there, praying and trusting God, and doing her best to keep lines of communication open.

 [My mom hates this picture. I think she's gorgeous.] These days, I really do enjoy a wonderful relationship with her. There's always that part of me that will only see her as my mom, but most of my relating to her has become on a friend level. She's one of the first people I call for advice on anything, and usually the very first I call when I have something to celebrate. It's taken a long time to get there, and I've had to battle through a lot of fear over what she might think about me or if she'll be proud of me, and I've had to give her honest - but always gentle and humble - feedback about how things make me feel. But it's been worth every part of it.

[For any non-Aggies reading this blog, this picture is from Aggie Ring Day, where I got my Fighting Texas Aggie Class of '15 Class Ring, WHOOP! - had to put a tribute to my school into my blog SOMEWHERE. Gig'em.]

And, just for kicks, proof that my mom knows me. As if that was ever a question or concern.

I know a lot of girls who have broken relationships with their moms. Honestly, I think that 9 times out of 10, that's just as much the mom's fault as the girl's. Moms reading this, from a child's point of view, I beg and urge you: make understanding your children and truly, deeply knowing them one of your priorities. The human heart aches to be understood, and God has created a special place in a child's heart that is only filled by a mother's understanding and unconditional love. Daughters reading this...don't do what I did. Don't shut your mother out. Okay, I don't know all circumstances of your life. I do know some women who have strained relationships with their moms due to an unhealthy or just plain bad situation that their mom is in or is causing. I can only cry on your behalf and pray that God liberates and restores that. But to all of you who have "normal" relationship with you mom, my point and my plea still stands. She's trying to love you. Help her know how. [The "normal" is in quotation marks because normal is truly an illusion, and it should never be used to invalidate something that is socially considered not "normal."]

Now...on to my SuperDad.

I've always identified as a daddy's girl. Some of my first words were "up Daddy!" Not just daddy, but "up Daddy!" As soon as he got home from work every day, I was ready to be picked up and held. Thank you very much for your time, Mother dear, but Daddy's home now and I want UP!! For years and years, my dad would make sure that me and my younger brother were bathed, cleaned, and ready for bed while my mom would tidy up the rest of the house. After that, he would either tell or read us a bedtime story. From those evenings together, not only do I have a passionate heart for stories and reading and a solid grasp on stories in the Bible, stories about hundreds of missionaries, and a great love for science fiction (he read us some old sci-fi as we got older), but I also have a deep attachment to spending time with him and making time together as a family.

 In high school, I was absolutely terrified of even mentioning to my dad that I noticed guys. I'm not exactly sure why, but I was. Obviously, since I'm dating someone now, it's kind of impossible not to talk to him about guys, if not on purpose than at least by default. And you know what I've found out? Dads know the most about "guy talk," because - guess what? - they were once guys too! Not only that, but, obviously since you exist, they were guys who had romantic lives of some kind.

  Anyway, that tidbit aside, I still cherish the long talks and time spent with my dad a lot. Yup, we still hang out and talk about different stories we're reading or want to read, and what we think is going on in the modern church and in missions, and all of that good stuff. In this recent season of anxiety, he's been someone I can truly depend on and know is going to be nothing but helpful and understanding. It's been a relief to have a confidant in the matter, because often I don't know what I would do without him and his help.

Also, we're all completely goofy, as you can see. And when did I become the shortest?! Inconceivable!

I feel like dads and daughters have a special relationship in many ways. Totally running a risk of being terribly stereotypical here, but the relationship that Elizabeth has with her dad in Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorites, and definitely something I hope and pray that all fathers and daughters can have. Lizzy has the confidence of her dad. He loves her and cherishes her, but he also trusts her and knows her. That's something irreplaceable in a girl's life. Pride and Prejudice is actually one of the books I'm reading right now, and it's been so much fun going through it and seeing the parallels between Lizzy & Mr. Bennet and me & my dad. 

There are so many things I could say about both of my parents, but I would be typing for the rest of the afternoon and all the way through tomorrow's challenge in order to get all of it done. I hope that my few words have truly done my relationship with my parents justice, because they are wonderful, loving parents.

Mommy and Daddy,  I love you guys bunches.

And just for fun, here's a picture of the whole family! Check it out, I'm not the shortest - Mommy is! Hehe!