Sunday, May 9, 2010

Thanks, Mom

Mother's Day already?  How does this sneak up on me every year?  Last year I posted on my fantastic Grandma Lu and earlier this year I posted on my dear Grandma Bette, but I haven't regaled you yet about my amazing Mom, Marie.

Now, if you are the mother of a daughter that looks just like you, and occasionally thinks just like you, and more times than is normal and despite thousands of miles can even feel your feelings, you might understand my relationship with my mom.  I looked in the mirror just this morning and saw Mom looking right back at me.  Whew, that was weird.  Oh, but how grateful I am to have such an awesome mom.

Thank you, Mom, for teaching me the value of children and especially how to love the ornery ones.  You had a little plaque that sat in that little niche by the phone (or where the phone used to be back when they had cords and tape recorded answering machines).  I don't remember what exactly it said, only that the gist was that children were 100% of our future.  That is how you live out every day.  You are a visionary, seeing the possibility in every child.  Countless children trace back their success to you, the teacher or principal that they had years and years ago.  I was privileged to be your student but even more so to be your daughter.

Thank you, Mom, for teaching me love - that friendships and relationships will sometimes end and often hurt, but that not to love in the first place is the real loss.  You comforted me through the drama and chaos of middle school, high school, eesh - college (that was a biggie), and then again in motherhood when the greatest thing I would do would be to love and let go.  Thank you for knowing the heartache even when my words couldn't express it.

Thank you, Mom, for being the example of an educated woman.  I believe it is a testament to you that your three daughters are pursuing Master's Degrees.  Education, we learned, equals empowerment.  And, well, we are all kinda brilliant and certainly very strong women.  Just saying...

Thank you, Mom, for being there every Sunday, teaching us the Word and showing it to us daily by your actions.  My faith is strong because my foundation was sure.  I appreciate the years of your life you spent sharing Christ's love with children.  I appreciate even more the way you lived to show Christ's love to everyone from every background, color, and creed.  I believe when all is said and done, He will say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."

Thank you, Mom, for being that slacker mom that didn't do all my laundry (that little cherry chap-stick issue really sealed the deal on that one), didn't make my lunches, let me make dinner when I was in middle school (if you can call sloppy joe Boboli pizza, dinner), let me fail a thousand times, so that I would learn.  I love that you gave me that book when I grew up and you realized that I was totally a slacker mom and struggling with my own identity as a woman and a mother and feeling like I might be totally screwing up my kids. But you didn't judge.  Oh, thank God it is okay to be a slacker mom.

Thank you, Mom, for all the laughs you provide when you allow us to use you for comic relief (okay you can dish it out too).  I will never forget when you told me that if I didn't like the teasing I needed to find another family.  My 15-year-old self would never have dreamed in a million years I would ever say that to my kid.  But guess what?  I did.  Also, remember that you wanted us to tell you when you get old and we make fun of you?  Though you are definitely not old, I am just saying, be advised, it's happening.

There are many many more things, but really, we could be here all night.  So, finally I would like to say thank you, Mom, for showing me how to hold my head high through the tough things in life.  You have not failed me, you have only strengthened me.  Happy Mother's Day, I love you.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Believing

We are believing around here for something big.  I believe that each child that comes through our house, be it through birth, friendship, or the foster care system, has a plan from above for good and not for evil.  Specifically I believe that the foster children that come through our home will have only positive outcomes and that the courts and CPS will work only to their best benefit. 

As you might remember, our last set of kids went on to be placed with their forever family.  The sequence of events that led these children to their forever family are too perfect for coincidence and too great for a mere human to have orchestrated.  We like to believe that we were chosen to be part of their plan.   These children are now lovingly matched with the parents that did not birth them from their womb but truly birthed them from their hearts.  We were honored to have been privy to that miracle. 

We feel that same powerful force moving in our current children's lives.  I prayed when we first got them, for His grace to cover them, and for their forever family to come along.  We had the children for approximately 11 days when they met their hopeful forever family.  It was a meeting too coincidental to be coincidental and there was an overwhelming sense by the hopeful mother that these were her children.  This couple will complete their licensing in record time and now have a developing relationship with our kids (logging many babysitting hours - willingly!). I hope that you, my dear friends and family, will join me in praying that these wonderful people will soon be our girls' forever parents.  Oh, if you knew them, you would love them too! (For all you dog people - I know there are many of you, these folks are our friends that own the only dog kennel/doggy daycare that we would ever trust with our four legged family.)