Valerie Rodriguez (right) and her mom, Patricia Troxell,
in a photo taken after they learned that Valerie had
won the 2007 Mother’s Day contest.

Talk about time flying! We announced our Mother’s Day contest last week, and this Thursday is the deadline to enter.

I still get teary when I think about the story submitted by our first winner, Valerie Rodriguez, of Fremont, California. Valerie’s mom, Patricia Troxell, had left an abusive husband when she was only 26 years old–with no family or resources to fall back on to help her support her three young kids.

Valerie wrote that her mom worked two and three jobs just to pay the rent. But as exhausted as she was, Patricia always did everything she possibly could to make her children feel loved and special.

Valerie recalled the day that her mother managed to scrape together enough money to surprise Valerie, her sister, and brother with a 6 1/2-hour car trip to a place where the kids could see and enjoy snow for the first time in their lives!

Patricia also surprised her kids with plastic snow disks to use to ride down the snow-covered slopes near the side of the road. She made “snow slushies” using the fruit punch she had brought from home. And she borrowed sleeping bags so that all four of them could sleep on the floor near the heater in their hotel room.

“I remember how happy we all were and how it brought us all together even more,” Valerie wrote. “She made us forget about our financial situation. It was a vacation from everything, and during that weekend with my family, I had the best time of my life. I will never forget it.” (You can read Valerie’s entire winning story by clicking here.)

Please jot down a story about a wonderful experience that you had with your own Mom. Tell a story that makes you laugh or cry–or both.

You could win our $250 prize. And you definitely will feel good about having written the story!

Click here for details, and then scroll down to enter the contest while wonderful memories are fresh in your mind!

Filed under: Family, Holidays