My Mom

I'm so blessed to have my mom! It makes me feel young to still have such a pretty and active mother! this picture shows her happiness when daddy was really able to surprise her by bringing my sister over from the Philippines for her 80th birthday in March! She commented that it was the first time she's been truly surprised, and she said it was a highlight of her life, really.

As I think about who she is and what she's like, I keep coming back to the fact that she truly trusts God with her concerns, which makes her a person whose mind is at rest. Yes, it's true that she can't get to sleep until the grandkid who is staying with them gets home at night, but in the things that normally make people crazy, she places them in God's hands. Serious health issues, the future, family concerns, other people's problems and failings... I know she takes them to the Lord and leaves them for Him to take care of in His way.

Mom is very industrious, and loves to get things done. She tries new recipes and prepares yummy meals. She makes pies out of apples and peaches she's harvested off of their trees. She works in the yard, making the front yard beautiful with flowers. In the back yard she and dad prune the fruit trees and she picks the bugs off the tomato plants by the light of a flashlight. She has a compost pile and she grows orchids. She decorates. She reads useful books that will enlighten her on a topic that interests her, usually having to do with ministry.

Mom is dutiful. She doesn't like to let a phone call go to the answering machine because it might be important. She makes cookies for Wednesday night coffee house at church. She works with the toddlers at church very regularly. She takes her turn as a lecturer at Women's Bible Study. She meets faithfully and effectively with people who ask her for counsel and encouragement. She goes to the gym. She sews. And yet these things don't make her a martyr or a goody-two-shoes, she does them willingly and happily. She's not doing them for the approval of people but because they are what God has gifted her and given her to do.

Mom has an open heart. Her heart and home are open to the people God brings. She often has guests for breakfast, lunch or dinner and people staying in the guest room. She lovingly babysits my grandson, her great-grandson, every Wednesday so Gretchen can work. She is famous for her easy tears, something I've inherited, and we both agree... this is a blessing and a curse. She's hopeful about  people, never writing them off.

Mom is contented. She accepts and is thankful for her life and works with what she has. She doesn't long for impossible things but is very much in the present, dealing with this day, this situation, this need, this job, this moment. She loves daddy and adapts herself to his active and interesting personality and they have a very happy and satisfying marriage.

Mom is artistic and creative. She has made a beautiful home for herself and daddy. She's the one we all get the artistic genes from. When we were kids we would occasionally look at her portfolio of watercolors from her Jr. College days. She has always enjoyed making pretty bouquets for the house... I remember abstract arrangements made with peach twigs covered with pink blossoms, placed in a vase she made in pottery class in college.

Mom is unselfish. She will give huge chunks of her time and energy, or whatever it takes to meet a need. It might make her tired but she won't think it's asking too much. She's uncomfortable doing anything too self-indulgent that feels like a waste of time or money.

It's so nice to stop and really think about mom! There's more, like how easy it is to get her laughing so hard she cries, but I think you have the idea. It's a gift to be loved and blessed by this wonderful woman, my Mom. I just wanted you, and her, to know.