My Mother

This is a picture of my mother and me.   She was pregnant with my younger brother in this picture.

I am grateful every day for being born to my mom and dad.  They were the best parents any child could have ever wanted.  They always had our best interest at heart in all they did.  Everything they planned was to enrich or better our lives.  I was a daddy's girl when ever he was home but my mom and I had a special bond, we were best friends.

From a very young age I would watch all she did and just admired her.  How she took care of my dad.  How she looked after and cared for all of us children.  (there were four of us)  How she kept such a clean and organized home.  Kept up beautiful flower beds.  Canned and froze vegetables.  She sewed clothing for us.  While doing all this she was able to put on healthy delicious meals three times a day.  She would always have her bible open on a table with a concordance open.  She would sit down for a few moments here and there to study and take notes or high light something.  A virtuous woman for sure.  I watched her.  I learned from her.  I never remember wanting to be anything but a mother like her.

She ran a tight ship.  You obeyed.  I didn't want to find out what would happen if I didn't.  She gave us the talk before taking us all into a store.  If you got the look, you know, the mama look... you knew you'd better get it together.

From the time I was very small I remember my sister and I standing on kitchen chairs pulled up to the kitchen sink, learning to wash and dry dishes.  I remember mom letting us help make meals and showing us how to bake.  My sister became a fabulous baker in no time.   We helped with everything and as we grew, we were soon doing many of those things on our own, as part of our chores.  We didn't know it but she was training up her children in the ways they should go.

She had bible studies with us and helped us memorize bible verses.  My mom, sister and I all sang as a group in nursing homes and in local churches.  We always had clean clothing, delicious home made meals, clean sheets on the bed and everything in order.

 I once joked with her and told her I felt like I grew up in a museum.

When I became a teen, I was very difficult.  Now that I have children of my own, I am so grieved at the sadness and pain I caused my parents in those years.  But mom and dad were always there for me.  I always felt I could talk to them about anything.  Mom... always stayed my best friend.

As I became a young woman my mom and I did our shopping together and spent a good deal of our spare time together.  As I had children she was such a good grandmother to them.  When Tim and I started doing foster care and adopting children, she embraced them all.  No mater what ethnicity, ability or color of their skin.  You don't know what a pillar she was to me in those years, as friends and family abandoned us because of us taking in some of these children.  She and dad were 100% there and on board.  Praise God! for that true love and support.  We needed that encouragement so much.

Eventually, Tim and our family moved onto my parents small farm.  They in their house and us at the other end of their property in a trailer.  Mom and I spent even more time together.  She came down once a week and did bible lessons with puppets for my children.  She would invite a child or two down to her home once a week to have some special time alone with her, eating grandma snacks and watching kids shows. (we didn't eat junk food or have TV piped in so this was a special thing!)  She would help me take the children on outings.  It was a wonderful time.  I have such wonderful memories of those years.  She was the best.

Slowly over time, it changed from her helping me to me helping her.  It was my pleasure.

Today is my mothers birthday.  She would have been 68 years old, if she had lived.  I can hardly believe she has been gone 9 years already.  Not a day has went by that I have not missed her in my life in a huge way.  I can't wait to see her again some day!  I have so much to tell her!

Happy Birthday Mom!  We all love and miss you so very much.

Revelation 21:4  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.