Mom's Birthday

Well, tomorrow is my birthday. I am blessed to share it with Christian, who is turning 20 and is serving the Lord in Texas. I am first of all, blessed by his willingness to sacrifice the "cool" life of college and friends for the "cool" life of helping his fellow man.

As I drove to Louisville to get Mark at the airport and with him to the temple, I had some very needed thinking time. I had a prayer in my heart for all of our family, each with their own needs. I thought of the many years behind Mark and I in raising our children and in the many years ahead in raising them. I thought of the way that we've worked to raise them. Our view of our children is that they come to us with their own personalities with weaknesses and strengths-each with their own life's mission and much value. They didn't come here to fail but to learn and grow and discover like I have learned to do in my life. I am grateful for two parents who taught me this pearl of great price in my own life. I was expected to work hard, set goals, and contribute but in the ways that I could, not in the ways that they pre-determined. They worked to train, not control. They expressed their trust in me that I would,, one way or the other, discover the things that were important for me to develop the characteristic that would be valuable not only in this life but in the life after.
Mark and I feel the same about our own children. We think that they are amazing in each and every one of their own ways. We trust that they are on the right path for themselves. We trust that they know that there is a God in Heaven who loves them and knows them even better than we do and that they have a Savior who will walk side by side with them through life's ups and downs.
We trust that they are doing their best.


Why write about this on my birthday?
I know that I have a Heavenly Father who trusted me and loved me enough to let me come down here to earth to be with parents, brothers and sisters who love me and I would love. Where a strong foundation would be built so that I could return the favor and work to find that special someone who would help me to be the best I could be and to love and raise our children with the same trust and admiration that I feel from our Heavenly Father.
I am grateful for a Mother and Father who wanted to have children and not just a few.
I am grateful to have been born in these interesting days of challenge. Definitely not boring.
I am grateful that my sweetheart was born into a wonderful family, too, with a strong foundation to draw on.
I am grateful to have been born in a free country.
I am grateful to have been born when there is a plethora of good works to draw from including the recorded histories in the scriptures.
I am grateful to have been born with a very healthy body.
I am grateful to be here today and hope that I am blessed to have many more birthdays here on earth to share with my family.
I am grateful.

I am happy on this my 30th (hee hee) birthday :)