Blog Challenge: Women I admire

I looked over the list of writing prompts for the blog challenge this morning and kept coming back to this one:

Write about a woman "Who inspires you?"

My friend Laurie inspires me. Laurie has had some really hard times in her life. She has overcome all of it and now is in a stable relationship, is a great mom and is a fun, loving friend. She is a co-leader of our 4-H club and works hard at everything she does. Her son, a friend of Jessie's, has some pretty serious health issues but Laurie deals with it all with grace.

In her younger life, Laurie had a drug problem, lived in her car with her little boy and escaped an borderline abusive relationship. She found the inner strength to pull herself together, get out of the relationship, and make something of her life.

Now Laurie works tirelessly to make things better for her son who deals with debilitating migraines and behavior issues. She nearly single handedly put together a huge fundraiser for our 4-H club that raised over $2500 dollars for our Relay for Life team.

Laurie inspires me to be a better, stronger person. I am so thankful to count her as a friend.