Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

Happy Birthday to my mom Kathryn as seen here with her namesake.

Marissa’s middle name is Kathleen, a form of Kathryn, because my mom made a point of trekking over to see us regularly when I was pregnant with Marissa.  Her intent was to bond with a very little Sedona so that it wouldn’t seem so scary when we were in the hospital.  Mom’s monthly visits increased like doctor visits:  once a month, once every three weeks, every other week toward the end to help with appointments and getting ready.  On January 4, 2007, she drove back to her house, only to turn around and drive back to our house a mere 8 hours later because I had gone into labor.  She deserved a medal, so Chris and I honored her with a name.  Funny how much Marissa looks like her.  (She also looks a lot like my dad and Chris’ Grandma Virginia, but you can definitely see the resemblance in this picture.) 

Mom is one of my best friends.  She makes us all feel loved and special by really paying attention to our needs and interests and having a ready, listening ear when we come to her.  She is very perceptive and respectful of of a person’s learning or response style.

Mom has lots of spiritual gifts, including life-saving intercessory prayer, encouragement, a contagious laugh (I’m positive that has to be a spiritual gift!), a heart of forgiveness and peace, and putting her heart into making or finding special gifts for her loved ones. 

With all the talk of Classical education, you’d think she had a role in inventing the concept.  She would find a manilla envelope of masterpiece posters/flash cards at a yard sale, and thus we had art around our house like it was no big deal.  Same thing with music – she could play a little of Fur Elise, so I would tinker with that melody for hours, trying to figure out how she did it.  Thus my brothers and I knew classical music.  She would make play dough, read Rudyard Kipling and teach me to sew.  She let me play outside for hours in my dress-up clothes including a child-sized hoopskirt that she found at a consignment store.  (THE FIND of the century!!! My friends were so jealous.)  We lived way out in the country, so she dealt with long car rides to school, groceries, anywhere,as well as starting real fires to warm the house in the mornings, bottle feeding young calves, and giving stray pets a home.

She has a great love of preschoolers.  Though I loved seeing her with my babies, it’s really fun to see her joy at their cuteness and innocence as they entered toddlerhood.  She taught me an appreciation of child development and how children are to be celebrated.  She is so gentle and kind with them or pretty much anyone, really.  Perfect strangers will confide in her, telling her their troubles and life story because they sense her good intentions and trustworthiness.

I love this woman so much.  She is so much a part of my life.  We have our frustrating mother-daughter moments like everyone else.  We are a lot alike and a lot different, but through it all, I’m so very very grateful to be able to call her Mom and Friend. 

Happy Birthday, Marmie.  I LOVE YOU!

Thank You, Heavenly Father for your precious creation in Mom.  She is so special, Lord, as you made her to be.  Thank You for her faith and all the ways she gave us knowledge of You.  Of all the blessings regarding Mom, the biggest one is that I know the conversation won’t stop when it is her time to go (which I pray will be a long, long time from now).   Because of You, Father, we will get to keep on chatting in Your Eternal Kingdom.  Because of You, Father, I can look forward to that then, and enjoy her life here on earth now.  Thank You for choosing her to be my mom and designing our family to include my dad, my brothers, their wives and children and all of the relatives we have.  You knit us together as babies and as families, Lord. 

Please bless Mom, and guide her days.  Refresh her in her role as caretaker of my Grandma and provide ways for her to be fed with your spiritual nourishment.  Thank You that we are only an email or phone call away, and that we often get to see her and Dad in person as well, by Your grace.  Thank You for the ways she brings joy to my children’s hearts and the way she loves Chris like a son and his mom like a sister.  Thank You for the example Mom sets in being a good wife.

Amen.