Happy Mother's Day

"I can't wait for you to come home."  That's the text I sent Jade yesterday.  She will be moving home for college near Saint Louis on Thursday.  I simply cannot wait.  Jamee will be staying in Saint Louis, finishing up the last couple months of requirements for her degree and preparing for her board of registry exam.  I miss her too, but am excited for the next chapter in her life. Both girls, as well as Brock and Grant, are doing what we have raised them to do. Spreading their wings, gaining independence, soaring to new things, becoming who they are created to become.

On this Mother's Day, I miss my two oldest daughters, I wish they were here, but I am confident that I will see them again very soon.   I can pick up the phone and hear their voices.  With today's amazing technology, I can even Skype or face time them and see their beautiful faces. I miss them, but I do know grieve for them. I know that our family circle is not broken simply because they are away.

But this Mother's Day, as every Mother's Day, I grieve my youngest daughter.  My arms, though full of so much love, ache for the child whose eye's I cannot look into, whose voice I cannot hear, whose hand I cannot hold.  Every day of my life I miss her but there are some days, like today, that the aching is nearly palpable.  Yet even through the sadness, I am grateful for the honor of being her mother.   Though I ache and grieve, it is not as one without hope.  I am going to see her again one day.  Until then, I will keep loving her, my beautiful Laynee Grace.

My own dear mother with her youngest granddaughter, Laynee.

Happy Mother's Day to mama's everywhere.
To those whose children walk this earth and those whose children left too soon.
To those whose children grew under their heart and those whose children grew into their heart.
To those whose children say I love you everyday and those who cannot or will not say it.
To those who raise children along side of fathers and those who do it all alone.
To those who parent their children and those who chose adoption. 
To those whose children are everything they ever dreamed of and those who've had to alter their dreams.
To those whose children are wildly successful and those whose children are in prison or on the streets.
To those to whom mothering comes natural and easy and those who find it's the hardest thing they've ever done.
To those who stay at home and those who go to work.
To those who serve meatloaf and apple pie and those who serve hot dogs and Hostess cupcakes.
To those whose hearts are filled with joy and those who ache with sorrow.
To all of the mother's who love in the best way you know how.  Happy Mother's Day. 

 Her children rise up and call her blessed

Proverbs 31:28

God is good, all the time.