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"My only concern is that there are alot of Catholics in the general sense that put way to much emphasis on Mary as more than just a woman blessed by God, and I think it has alot to do with the title, "Mother of God"."

This is a very common concern among non-Catholic Christians. We Catholics believe that the Saints in Heaven Intercede on behalf of those of us on here earth, (Rev 8; 1-5) ) and we ask them to pray to God for us. The phrase that you quoted earlier is from the last line of the Hail Mary, a very common Catholic prayer: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen." (The rest of the prayer is taken from Scripture.)

People commonly ask us, "Why don't you just pray straight to Jesus?" By all means, we do, but we also ask the Saints to pray on our behalf as well. We Orthodox and Roman Catholics are descended from the men who lived and and slept with Jesus, our ancestors ate with Him. The History of Salvation is very personal to Catholics. The Saints are our family, and we ask them to pray for us, for as St. James tells us, the prayer of the righteous man availeth much (James 5:16). We do not believe that we are separated from the Saints by death, and and we see those in Heaven as members of the Church. We worship God on earth now, they worship God in Heaven. To put it another way, "Any friend of God's is a friend of mine."

Another reason that Mary is important to us is that we also believe Jesus gave Mary to Christians to be our spiritual Mother. This is reflected in the Gospel of John, where Jesus, immediately before He dies on the cross, gives Mary to the beloved disciple to be his mother.

Mary represents the way of the Christian: she carried Christ within her, and she brought Christ into the world, which is exactly what we Christians are called to do. Notice that at the start of Jesus' Ministry at the wedding feast of Cana, the servants approach Mary with their request. Her words are directed to all of us: "Do what He says." We see Mary as always pointing to Christ, whose handmaiden she is. She is also a model of Christian obedience to God. "Be it done unto me according to your word."

Mary is not God, but she is the handmaid of the Lord. Many non-Catholic Christians are uncomfortable with the Catholic Church's teachings about Mary, and I can understand that. For us, however, she was given the great Grace of a very important role in the history of salvation. We also believe that as a Saint in Heaven, she prays to God on our behalf, and we look to her as our Spiritual Mother, very much in the same way we look to the Church, the Bride of Christ, as our Mother.