Mom

Tonight I talked with my mom, which was one of the best conversations I've had with her ever.

This woman is incredible. When I talk with her as I have gotten older and get an inside view at what her life has been, I am in awe.

This woman is a quiet, beautiful, natural, free, fun, loving, caring person. She is totally a country girl through and through. I was reminded of this when she told me she did something 'out of the ordinary' today. I had no idea what to expect, last time she told me something like that she had 'gone to coffee' with a lady from church! :) (To which, I cried because it has been so long since I saw my mom with a real friend!)

Well, today the guys went camping, and Heidi was still at work, so Mom went to the county fair. She said she walked through the livestock barns, then the exhibit hall and looked at all the projects. She talked with a little girl from Sam's class about her hog she showed. Mom is the expert pig woman. She knows so much about those animals! So I don't really know why mom said today was something 'out of the ordinary', but to me it sounded like she actually did something she LOVES!

Made me really miss the country. The slow life. Because today I saw the opposite. I saw the life of the Urban Mom. Oh my, it is different. It is still a culture that I do not understand. I struggle here. I do not understand. Sure there are good and bad in both, but today I was really struck with how simple life was when I grew up in the country and how for the kids I watch, life is complicated! All the pressures of the urban mom.

Then I asked my mom if she had a hard time transitioning after college. This is when I began to cry because I began to see my lovely mother at my age almost 30 years ago. I could see her, 3 weeks after graduating from college, a newly wed in a new city, no job, and only able to call family and friends once in a while because those calls were long distance (meaning expensive!). And dad had the car when he went to work, so she said she would sit at home and sew or learn how to bake bread (which is the best homemade bread I have EVER had in my entire life!).

I could see her. I could hear for one of the first times ever my mom being real and sharing with me something of her past that was a hard thing at the time. These moments don't happen much. I felt like I got a piece of treasure. I was also encouraged because I knew she knows how I feel in some ways. She knows what it is like to be so far from family and friends, and have to adjust to some place totally new.

Something else I have thought about this week about my mom is that she is just a wonderful mom! She told me tonight that she gave up her job to be a mom. They wouldn't give her part time work so she told them to tell her what their process was for her to resign! She said her friends thought she was crazy to sacrifice her degree and a good job to be a MOM! And at this point she was a new believer, so lots of things were new and different in her life. I'm so thankful for my mom who sacrificed to be there for my sisters, brothers, and I. She taught all 5 of us to read, write, do math, how to clean, cook, use proper manners, do laundry, talk kind, and most of all, she loved to tell us Bible stories. It is my mom who first shared with me the story of Jesus and because of that, I am where I am at today.

I hope that one day I can be as good a mom as my mom is and has been. God bless that woman!