However Far Away, I Will Always Love You

I can't spend this mother's day with my mom because I am away in Georgia, still, and I can't buy her something like dirt this year, she gardens, but I still wanted her to know how much I love her, so I came up with 17 reasons and I also wanted to share some of my best moments from the past year

My mom and I. (Yes she is wearing an eyepatch. We were at an eye patch party!)

1. She is completely honest with me a lot of the time, if I can deal with her criticism I can take anything. “You are going to work dressed like that?!” “Why the hell did you that to your hair?” “
2. She supports my leisurely approach to finishing higher education, she knows I will get there, I just have to do it my way.
3. Everyday I thank her for “cutting me off” at a young age and making me pay for everything I wanted to buy so I learned not to depend on someone else, which in turn made me a hard responsible worker... Most of the time.
4. She is really cuddly.
5. I’m happy she never let me have a pet lived a long time (I got fish) so it’s one less thing to miss when I travel, she did however get my a little brother, I guess that’s like a dog.
6. Teaching me how to cook. I am so happy that I am not one of those kitchen spazes. Also on the same note I love all of her delicious cooking experiments, except the fish ones.
7. Having amazing confidence and not caring what people think if it means embarrassing one of her children or making someone laugh. Like when Ben & Jerry’s came out with the flavor “Schweddy Balls” and she went around to at least one grocery store a day for a week asking loudly “ DO YOU HAVE ANY SCHWEDDY BALLS?” 
8. Teaching me that family is one of the most important things in the world, not matter how dysfunctional.
9. Reading with me when I was little from books with strong females, people from different cultures and with good morels that allowed my imagination to explode and me to dream.
10. Being there for me when a “stupid boy” was mean to me.
11. Even living half way around the world I can count on her to always be there for me for everything from asking if she watched last nights Glee, shipping me random things, or calling her in a panic because I am afraid that I am making homemade macaroni and cheese for my roommate wrong.
12. Letting me have the friends I want to and always welcoming them at house, but scarring the crap out of them at times, so they won’t stay forever.
13. Packing anti-diarrhea pills, even though I thought it was really stupid. I thank her silently every time I have to use them. I live in Georgia, you are going to need them.
14. She loves Adele as much as me, making road trips much more successful without me having to sit with my headphone jammed in my ears and my hoodie pulled up trying to block out her music.
15. Letting me be my own person and make my own way in the world, even when I am sure she questions if I even have a “plan.” Although I sometimes wish she hadn’t let me be my own person when it came to spelling.
16. Making me understand from a young age that other people have feelings and that it is unacceptable to bully or belittle them for any reason.
17. Supporting me in all my travels, even if she doesn’t agree with some of the places I go, because in the end it makes me happy and able to grow in ways that we both could have never imagined. In the past year I have spent half of it away from her in, in Georgia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and a night in London, traveled countless hours on planes, trains, and buses accomplishing things I don’t think she could have even dreamed of when I was born. It is a massive credit to her parenting (and my father’s) that I am, where I am today. Without her I wouldn’t have a best friend and a constant source of support. I know that whenever I do end up back in Maine she will be there to welcome me with a hug, a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, and a hot bath to wash off all my travel grime. You can say that you have the best mom in the world, but I don’t believe you, not one bit, because she is mine and you can’t have her. I love you mom!

Eating Georgiana nutritious meal in the main square in Lviv (May 2011)

Saying goodbyes at the train station in Lviv after volunteering at a film festival. (May 2011)

My adopted Ukrainian grandfather I met on a train that wanted to take Chad and I to his village for a fishing weekend. (May 2011)

I got to see London (End of May 2011)

Who is this pretty lady? I think it's her birthday! (June 2011)

Yea I'm pretty badass taking my little brother out to dinner (July 2011)

He's a badass in training. (July 2011)

Lunch at Benny's (September 2011)

Christmas wasn't quite the same without you, but we made it work (December 2011)

Maybe it was a good thing I didn't spend New Year's Eve with you because I am sure you would have out partied me. (2011-2012)

Ukrainian Christmas (January 2012)

Me doing my first Georgian Dancing (January 2012)

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Me getting excepted by the locals (February 2012)

My kids being silly after school (February 2012)

My host mother (right) and neighboug making Georgian food, I helped! (March 2012)

Me with new glasses (March 2012)

My host dad with Saba, the neighbor baby (March 2012)

Me at my host dad's birthday supra with Simon, on of my village friends (March 2012)

Me in a marshookah on my way from Tbilisi to the village (March 2012)

Me by the border of Azerbaijan (March 2012)

Enjoying a nice sunny day in Lagodekhi, drinking soda. (April 2012)

Me in Tbilisi by an advertisement for Gap (April 2012)