Today is my mom’s birthday!  So, in honor of her day I wanted to share what makes her such a special person:

You Called Out The Best In Me

• When I was a little kid, my mom encouraged me to pursue my interests, my many crazy ideas (like pretending I was an Amish girl and making my brother be an Amish boy) and creative endeavors, even when it meant allowing me to fix my own hair for church as a four year old and showing up with the funkiest hairdo you ever did see.

 

• She didn’t allow me to quit once I had started something, even when the going got really tough.
• Mom gave me space as a kid to dream, to explore, to roam into the spaces of who I would one day become.

You Taught Us To Explore

• She and dad taught me to love the outdoors, and to enjoy things like camping, roasting marshmallows, hiking, riding bikes, appreciating the birds in the sky and exploring our world.  While I experienced these as the simple pleasures of life, it wasn’t simple at all for mom to pack up the camper on weekends with all of our needed supplies, and then unload it all again at the end of a fun but tiring weekend.  I never heard her complain once and looking back I can see what a monumental task that was!

You Modeled Service To Others And Included Me In It

• Mom made herself available to serve and allowed me to help alongside her.  For example, every August, a large migrant community would move into our area.  The parents worked long hours in the fields picking tomatoes, and out of necessity would bring babies and young children to the fields with them.  Seeing the need, my mom started a ministry that took vans into the various camps to pick up the little kids, bring them back to our church, and then provide a safe and loving daycare environment equipped with a large volunteer staff.   My brother and I would help receive these precious little kids in the morning before we had to go to school, and then again after school.  Sometimes we would ride out to the camps, holding little babies on our laps, to drop them back off to their parents at the end of the day.  I’m so grateful to have had that opportunity, and for the difference, my mom made in the lives of the families served through the daycare.

You Invest In Your Grandchildren’s Lives

• When my own kids came along, mom took on the Best Grandma Ever role.  Things that I thought seemed so terrible, like one kid hitting another, my mom would just laugh and say “Now, you don’t want to treat your brother like that, do you!?”, and seamlessly move into some kind of distracting activity that brought a measure of peace once again.  Brilliant.
• Just as she and dad were always at my brother and my sports and music activities, she and dad have done the same for their grandkids.  They are the #2 cheerleaders (after Charles and I, of course), faithfully driving 2 hours one way to watch recitals, dive meets, baseball games, volleyball matches, awards banquets, celebrate birthdays and graduations and so much more.

There is sooo much more I could say about Grandma Nini, as we all lovingly refer to her.  Just like she has always done, she continues to be there for all of us, supporting us, blessing us, giving wise perspective, offering up more prayers for us than we could ever know, and showing us all what it is to love Jesus.

Mom, thank you for being awesome and we love you very much!