Quote from Forum Archives on May 17, 2006, 12:23 pm

Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>

Dear Hope Chest friends,

 

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

 

I just got this in e-mail, and thought you would all enjoy it.  I signed up for Laines Letters recently because I had seen them mentioned in Above Rubies Magazine (www.aboverubies.org) and Making It Home magazine (www.makingithome.com). 

 

Laine talks about her mom's Mother's Day visit, as well as some things she appreciates about moms.   My own mom, Mary Quarrier, who lives in Maryland, actually came to visit our family on the day after Mother's Day.  Why?  Well, last week her 93 year old father called her, feeling very weak and discouraged.  Mom realized she needed to fly down to south Florida pronto to see what was going on with him and Grandma Hess.  As soon as she arrived, they told her they were ready to move back to Maryland with her, as she had invited them to do.  (They lived with my mom and dad for almost a year after Hurricane Charley damaged their retirement apartment.)  So Mom is busy packing them up and they'll fly north this Saturday.  We're just glad she took a brief trip up to Orlando to see us while she was in the state.  We always love seeing her!  You just have to know how nurturing my mom is.   She has been so sweet in caring for her  parents.  By the grace of God and the kindness of my husband, I have an airline ticket to fly up to Maryland for five days next month and attend a Hess family reunion in Pennsylvania.  Most of my family hasn't seen Melody yet (she'll be 10 months old) so this is a real treat.   Well, enough about me and mine.  Here's Laine's Letter.

 

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--------- Forwarded message ----------

Dear Sisters,

Yesterday was Mother's Day. I enjoyed the day with my mom, which was rare, because she hasn't been here for a Mother's Day in years, so it was really special. But I missed my mother-in-law and my grandmother, having lost them both this year. It was so strange not to be able to pick up the phone and talk to them on this special day, to tell them that hearing their voice just made my day, and to send them a card reminding them what they mean to me. So I asked the LORD to tell them that I loved them.

 

I realized this week that my own mothering encompassed so much of what I have learned from these three godly women in my life and also my other grandmother who passed away many years ago. I have heard it said that Proverbs 31 encompasses the lives of more than one woman - rather it is one woman having grown from all the mothers in her life into the woman which is penned before us. Perhaps this is true. For my own life definitely reflects the love of my mother, my grandmothers, and my mother-in-law into the wife and mother I am now. They have helped me so
much to be a godly wife and mother which is the essence of Titus 2:3-4 admonishing the older women to help the younger women love their
husbands, their children, and to be keepers of the home. With that in mind, and with my mother, my grandmothers, and my mother-in-law also in
mind, here is what I have found to be so sweet in motherhood.

 

A mom believes in you before you were even born.

 

A mom carries you in prayer before she ever carries you in her arms.

 

A mom can disguise a vegetable in a hundred ways to get you to eat it.

 

A mom can take a simple bone and make the most fabulous soup with it.

 

A mom can sew you a dress for a special occasion and make you feel like a princess when you finally wear it.

 

A mom can crochet your first baby a blanket and send it half way across the country reminding you that you are not alone, but years and years of
wisdom are behind you.

 

A mom is always in your heart, even when you've left her home to start your own.

 

A mom will tell you she loves you in the most awkward places, especially when you are a teen.

 

A mom will kiss your face off your whole life.

 

A mom can make every birthday feel like its your most important birthday - even when you're 45 years old.

 

A mom doesn't mind messes as long as you are learning something - and she's always wanting you to learn something, so there's always some sort
of mess involved.

 

A mom is the first person you look for when you come home and walk through the house.

 

A mom may look humble on the outside, but she's really rich on the inside, especially when her children are all home around her table.

 

A mom never stops praying for you, even when everyone else does.

 

A mom has hands that are busy blessing, and blessing, and blessing...then blessing still more.

 

A mom makes a simple shelter into a loving home - apartment, house, hotel, or even a tent.

 

A mom can see something delectable in the refrigerator when you see nothing whatsoever.

 

A mom makes sweet summer memories at the seashore or the lake.

 

A mom can kiss away a "boo boo" better than any doctor with all his training.

 

A mom can find pocket change in the most obscure places and then take you out for some fried clams and a ride on your bike on a hot summer evening.

 

A mom might weep for a night, but there will be joy in the morning.

 

A mom is the first person you think of when it's time for dinner.

 

A mom can set a table with a well worn tablecloth and mismatched dishes and leave you longing for the same meal again in the same week.

 

A mom can make the most ordinary tasks so pleasurable - like taking a bath full of bubbles with soft, squishy toys and duck shaped facecloths.

 

A mom can take four plain walls and cozy them up in the most comforting way possible on the tightest of budgets.

 

A mom can make the most arduous task seem a little easier with the promise of tea and toast at the end of it.

 

A mom makes you feel secure in a crazy world - especially when you are two or fourteen.

 

A mom always seems to be home when you need her.

 

A mom smells so good, like a rose or a lavender bloom just freshly picked.

 

A mom can make a simple bed so soft and comforting with lots of scraps of cloth sewn tightly together or yarn crocheted into a pleasant pattern.

 

A mom can really listen like no other, so when you walk away you feel you've really been heard.

 

A mom can take a fistful of flowering weeds and adorn the table with them in the prettiest vase making the little giver smile at supper time.

 

A mom will listen to you practice over and over the song or verse you are trying to memorize for church.

 

A mom will help you with homework no matter how late it is or how hard it is for you to get it.

 

A mom will help you to hug your dad when you are so mad at him - and vice versa.

 

A mom will help you look your best at her expense.

 

A mom is always trying to reorganize something, rearrange something, or repair something.

 

A mom can be called on no matter what time of the day or night -she's always on call.

 

A mom can laugh and the whole room lights up.

 

A mom often has a baby on her hip or a toddler clinging to her leg - even if she's 60 years old.

 

A mom's work is so hidden until she is sick or called away to help someone else.

 

A mom is there to nurse you back to health and to prevent you from getting sick in the first place.

 

A mom is the first person you call when you are sick at school or out of the country.

 

A mom teaches you how to make your husband's favorite food bonding you forever.

 

A mom will help you to understand your father when he's the least understandable.

 

A mom can take four simple ingredients and make the tenderest tortillas.

 

A mom can take the worst day and turn it around with a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies and an old movie.

 

A mom can make you want to get up in the morning with the smell of coffee and cinnamon muffins wafting through the house from the old kitchen.

 

A mom can plant some seeds against the wall of the house, and the most beautiful grapes vines begin to grow because she prayed first over the
seeds.

 

A mom can say a joke that no one gets, but everyone starts laughing because she's laughing so hard before she's even finished.

 

A mom can look so beautiful in your mind's eye out at the clothesline on a windy day.

 

A mom can look so ordinary at home, but when it's time to go out, she looks like some sort of beauty queen.

 

A mom will put portraits of you all over the house - even in the bathroom.

 

A mom will run outside to help a neighbor in need - even when she has a cake in the oven.

 

A mom can paint and reupholster the ugliest chair and make it absolutely beautiful - then put it in your room - so that each time you look at it,
you remember her transformation.

 

A mom always wants to know how your day went and if you missed her as much as she missed you.

 

A mom is always up before you are.

 

A mom always wants to know if you slept well.

 

A mom can make an old kitchen the most memorable room in the house.

 

A mom will listen to the doctor, then do a bit of her own doctoring as well, which helps his prescription work even better.

 

A mom will teach you things you never knew you learned until you have kids of your own.

 

A mom is always snapping your photo and then showing it to anyone who will look, especially strangers in grocery stores standing in line.

 

A mom can stretch a tight grocery budget to its limits and leave only the most sweetest memories of comforting foods.

 

A mom will write you letter after letter when you are the most lonely in an obscure part of the world.

 

A mom will take you blueberry picking for two weeks straight in the hottest of summers, but you'll never forget the blueberry biscuits in the
dead of winter on a blizzardy day.

 

A mom will teach you how to make peanut brittle when all your siblings are away at summer camp.

 

A mom can play music in the house that you never forget your whole life.

 

A mom will read to you as though she has all the time in the world.

 

A mom is a resource of recipes, remedies, and diaper rash treatments.

 

A mom will teach you God's Word which gives you your first thirst for the Book of Life.

 

A mom never fully falls asleep until everyone is home.

 

A mom can make an ugly striped rug look better, or a floor full of holes look better just by her special touches here and there.

 

A mom will seem so much younger when she's around her friends reminiscing making you realize for the first time that she was indeed a teen once
upon a time.

 

A mom teaches you your first prayers.

 

A mom can make a rainy day so special with chicken soup, hot bread, candles, and a fire going in the fireplace.

 

A mom is full of help and hope and honor.

 

A mom is a storehouse full of childhood memories - her own and yours.

 

A mom will be there when your heart is breaking because someone was mean
to you just when you thought he liked you.

 

A mom can figure out an answer to a problem because she's always talking to Jesus.

 

A mom is found at every ballgame, play, dental appointment, recital, or
race.

 

A mom can get a stain out, a sliver out, and a sickly cat out...all in one hour.

 

A mom is worth fighting for - as any junior high boy finds out at his first summer camp.

 

A mom can talk on the phone like no other woman and then call it her "phone ministry."

 

A mom will stand outside in the street waving until your car is completely out of sight, and then she'll do it all over again if you've
forgotten something.

 

A mom can tell something is wrong the minute you say, "hello" on the telephone.

 

A mom will cry just when you least expect her to and when you most expect her to.

 

A mom is one of the most memorable women on earth.

 

Happy Belated Mothers Day!

 

Love,
Laine

 

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Laine's official website:           <http://lainesletters.com>
To subscribe:         <[email protected]>
To unsubscribe:     <[email protected]
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