By Rob Ficiur

Last Sunday Americans spent about $14 billion dollars to celebrate Mother’s Day.  Mother’s Day is the top day for flower sales in the year.  Of course we are not limited to buying Mom flowers or chocolate; this week I received two faxes describing the great Mother’s Day sale on cell phones!
Anna M. Jarvis , a Philadelphia schoolteacher, began a movement to set up a national Mother's Day in honor of her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis.  By 1914 US President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as a national holiday in honor of mothers.  Before Ann Jarvis passed away in 1948 she was worried that Mother’s Day had become too commercialized and that was long before all the great cell phone Mother’s Day packages came out.
In spite of the commercialism of Mother’s Day, the original idea was to express thanks to our Mothers for all they have done and still did do for us.  Unfortunately most of us are parents before we realize how much our mom did for us while we were growing up.
Every Mom needs and deserves a God medal for something…some quiet act of service that goes unnoticed to the rest of the world but changes the life of a child.  Recently I have kept note of several Gold Medal Mothers who did what mothers do make life better for children.
1.  Waitress who cares.  In a distant city my wife and I got into a conversation with a waitress.  This 30-some year old lady told us that she had taken in the rebellious teenager of a friend.  The teenager who caused havoc at home, was no discipline problem for this lady.  There are women around the world who become mothers to children in need of a mother.  While we give multi-million dollar contracts to athletes who can hit a ball, the world is a better place when a Fill-in-Mother can love a child who needs love.
2.  Afghan Women. Recently I read T he Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis.  This novel brought to life the challenges faced by the women of Afghanistan during the years the Taliban ran the country.  Women were not allowed out of their homes without a male escort (even if the male was a young son).  In our western society where modesty is a four letter word, the Afghan women dealt with fanatics from the opposite end of the spectrum.  Women were not allowed out of the home without their bukra.  Through the tiny eye slits they could see, but often stumbled.  If someone chooses to follow these strict rules of Islam, I am happy for them.  However, as I read this story of how the Taliban oppressed women and families (and any who dared speak against them) the women of Afghanistan became the heroes to me.
3.  Foster Mom (and Dad).  I had the chance to visit with a family that had taken in two foster children.  This couple took in two children to love and take care of while the system worked out what would be the best for these children.  Watching Foster Mom look after these two little ones, there was no doubt in my mind that these two unrelated children would be loved and taken care of in the home they were in. Foster parents take into their homes children in need of love; for a few days, weeks or for a life time.  They enter this caring scenario knowing that any day the child they have nurtured and loved for weeks or months could be snatched from their arms and go back to a parent or other relative.  In spite of that uncertainty I was touched to see Foster Mom give unconditional love to these little ones regardless of what would happen weeks and months from now. 
For years people would ask me “Does your wife work?” My honest reply was “Yes, very hard.  She is a Mom.”
Whether she is a stay at home Mom with a handful of noisy children; if she is a working mom trying to balance work and home; if she is an empty nester Mom who is concerned about the next generation; Moms do more to strengthen our country than any government program ever will.
As the commercial version of Mother’s day has come and gone take the time to thank your imperfect Mother for raising you (an imperfect child) to be whatever you are today.  Abraham Lincoln’s quote applies as much today as it did when he said it over 150 years ago
“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”