Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday, so Happy Birthday Mom (or as my kids know her, Grammie)! How do I write about someone that is so much a part of who I am? Since becoming a mother, I have come to appreciate so much more all that my mother did for me growing up and who she is as a woman.

Some of the things I appreciate about her:

her amazing gift of hospitality...

-I can remember in junior high and high school all of my friends liked coming to my house. My mom actually made lunch for my best friend and I every day of my sophomore and junior year of high school. We would race to my house on our lunch break (in the days of open campus) and my mom would have lunch waiting for us.

-I remember in college, telling my youth pastor that "sure it would be okay" to stop at my house on the way to summer camp, and having 30 kids (whom they did not know) spending the night at my parents house. She fixed a huge breakfast for all of them the next morning and sent them on their way.

-I remember telling a family that I met in Australia that my parents would love to have them stop by on their way through...I think they stayed for almost a week, and my parents treated them like family!

-When my parents were coming to spend Thanksgiving with me my senior year in college (the big TAMU and UT game), I asked ten Chinese students to come spend it with us; she never skipped a beat, and somehow there was plenty of food to go around!

-When four couples were going skiing for the weekend, we got in really late, she had a spread of munchies ready for us, let my friends sleep in my parents bed (while they took the couch) and made breakfast the next morning; I think she even packed us snacks for the trip!

her stubborn love

-Through my rebellious phase, she never gave up on me.

-I have a wayward sister, and no matter how many times she falls on her face, my mom never quits praying and never gives up hope.

-She has a chronic, quite debilitating disease that causes her to not feel good much of the time, yet she still gets down on the floor to play with her grandkids, has tea parties, helped them set up a lemonade stand this summer and even went to the waterpark with all of them!

her support

-When I was the first one to go away to college, and I chose one 9 hours from home, she supported me 100%.

-When I wanted to do mission work on the other side of the world, she never talked about how it would affect her, she just did everything to get me ready, and sent me off with a bag full of notes for whenever I got lonely in Australia that summer.

-Each spring while I was at Texas A & M, she and Daddy would take off from work and drive nine hours to be with me for Parents Weekend. They would hang out with my friends and I and do all sorts of crazy stuff with us!

-In the difficulties of the last year, she always assured me that God had a plan and we have yet to see how this is going to glorify Him.

her tender heart

-She cries at sappy movies just like me. She cries when I cry. She cries when my sister cries, she cries when the person on the long distance commercial cries!

her friendships

-She has friends spread out all over the place, from all stages of life. She taught me that distance doesn't separate friends and that you can stay close through all that you face in life, in all the phases of life. I never understood the value of her example until I grew up and built friendships with women who were crippled by the fact that they didn't know what true friendship looked like.

her love for God's Word

-As I've grown older, I notice that she sits on the back porch with her Bible each day; maybe she always did this, but I never noticed until it became something I valued in my own life.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it gives you a glimpse of the woman I am blessed to call Mom. I'm not always very good at expressing my love and appreciation for her, so on this day, her day, I want her to know how much I celebrate her.