Selena Gomez’s mom, Mandy Teefey, is thankful for their “amazing” bond this holiday season.
On Thursday, Teefey, 47, shared a sweet carousel of images on Instagram of her spending precious moments with the “Single Soon” singer, 31, over the years — just in time for Thanksgiving.
“Where we are today is amazing,” Teefey wrote.
On the cover photo was a photo of Teefey holding Gomez when she was just a baby. “We came a long way to get here and more importantly we are still family first,” her caption continued.
She then explained that the emotional burdens weren’t over that day.
“The last photo is me holding Gracie who was born a few days later. Next up is Gracie montage!!! XO.”
Teefey welcomed Gomez in 1992 and the star has been open about the impact her mother had on her growing up.
After marrying Brian Teefey in 2006, Teefey and her husband welcomed daughter Gracie in 2013.
“I was a teenage mom with Selena, obviously, and I was very judged by that,” Mandy told ET in a March 2017 interview. “My neighborhood was really dangerous [with] gangs. With all of that, and when I got pregnant, I think that’s what triggered it, because I was like, ‘Okay, I have another person depending on me. I have to come clean,’ and that’s when I started working hard. I’m like, ‘I’m not going to let her get the upbringing that I got.’”
In a previous E! Special, the Only Murders in the Building star gave her perspective. “Having me at 16 had to have been a huge responsibility,” Gomez said. “My mom gave up everything for me and she was working like three jobs.”
The Rare Beauty founder also expressed gratitude for her mother’s sacrifices.
“When I first started working, my mom was the person in my life that helped me get through most of that. Everything that I am has become a little bit of what my mom has gone through,” Gomez told Time when the publication profiled her for TIME Firsts, a multimedia project featuring 46 groundbreaking women.
“She had the ability to make me feel like I was still capable of doing whatever I wanted.”