Mother

Everyone is born with one mother. Only the ones who get married, are the ones who then have two mothers. Everyone knows this. I want to talk about the mother that i gained through marriage. Now, I know I need to be careful. You see, it's important to me that my real mother, my birth mother, the one who gave me life, not feel less, or unimportant, or like i love her less. For she IS the one that gave me life! She has taught me everything there is to know about life. She was my teacher in school, She taught me everything from walking to balancing my checkbook, from eating solid foods and talking to how to handle disappointment and failures. And SO MUCH more!!!!! She pointed me to CHRIST!! For she is MY mother and even more than that, in recent years, she has become my friend! I also think she had a harder time in that she had to leave her home and live in a foreign field, teaching her kids both cultures, Ecuadors and American. She was/is an amazing woman and i always say that if i could be half the mother/woman she is, I will be doing pretty good!!

But I want to talk about the woman who has become my second Mom. I remember back in college a fear and wonder about who would be my mother-in-law. I wondered what kind of person and personality she would have. I feared us not getting along and having issues and troubles. There was a Mother and Daughter-in-law at my extension church in college that were as close and best friends like I had never seen before. I remembered asking the Daughter-in-law how she got along so well. Her answer was Love, Grace, and Respect, and that she was lucky in the person that her Mother-in-law was. After I met Bryan and he took me home to meet his family, I fell in love with his mom!! That love has only grown!!! She is an easy person to love, but over the years she has become to mean as much to me as my own mother! Where do I even start, for there is so much I love about this woman! She is kind, gentle, sweet, even-tempered, loving kind of a person. She hardly ever puts herself first. She is loving and loyal to family and friends. She has a grace I have only seen in a few people. She listens to all my troubles, venting, failures, sins, thoughts, worries, and desires, and shows me love and grace thru it all as I work thru this thing called life!! Over the past 9 years that I have known her, our relationship has grown, never wavering thru some really difficult things, and gotten very deep to something that I treasure. I thank God for His kindness and grace in my life on this aspect in who he gave me as a Mother-in-law and the blessing she is in my life

Now the reason for me writing this blog is that our family has been hit with something that is very close to home and I'm telling my life story. My mother-in-law was just recently diagnosed with breast cancer (Also, right now, my Aunt is battling thru it!!). She just met with a surgeon on the 2nd of April and will have surgery on the 24th to remove the cancer and a lymph note to see if the cancer is anywhere else and what kind and to know how to proceed. Thankfully they seem to have caught it in the early stages. This is new territory for all involved. We are scared, unaware of what will come next, what to expect, and what the future holds, how this will change our family or if anything will change. We would so appreciate prayer thru this whole process. Especially for my Mother-in-law. As she depends more on God's strength and grace in the days to follow. She is so strong and has used this to really show Christ in her life. We understand that everything happens for a reason, God has a plan to constantly grow us and make us more like Him. And in His grace He decided the best way to go about that. My life is a story of His grace and I love how He has been showing me it, even thru the life of others. To watch my Mother-in-law bear this weight and trust God, that He loves her and knows best, has been a true testament to the Christian walk and the things we go thru. What an example she is in my life! She has and will continue to have bad days emotionally and some physically as she is far from perfect, pray for her. I love her dearly and so deeply. I am writing this about a month before Mothers Day and I would like to do something special for her. I can use all the ideas and help I can get. I have a hard time coming up with ideas. Suggestions, ideas, and opinions???? Just message me, and maybe tell me your story. For I know that there are many with similar stories....