Laura

Laura is my mom.
It's funny how the word "mom" comes with so many emotions: warmth, love and laughter. As a child, I didn't really know my mother as a woman - she was just my mom! What a pleasure it has been to get to know her as "the woman" and find out that she is my very close friend.

She is wonderful.
She is the best.
She is a woman of integrity.
She is a woman of godly character.
She is the mother of 3.
She has aged beautifully.
She is a teacher.
She loves her family.
She loves people.
She is a great listener.
She is a good "cookers".
She is lovely.
She is hilarious.
She has great taste in men and even better kids. ( :) )
She is incredibly courageous.
She cares.
She exudes wisdom.
She keeps the peace.
She accepts situations and crisis with grace, kindness and love.
She has a heart for our international friends.
She speaks truth.

Mom - I hope you don't mind your Mother's Day card being put on display this year. I'm not sure I can put into words how much I appreciate and love you. It is such a comfort knowing you are only a few hours away instead of across the country. I love watching you with my children and know that they will have so many more memories of time with their Nana. You truly are an inspiration and you make me want to be better as a wife, daughter and especially a mother.
I love you so much!

tonight I wasn't a good mom...
I wasn't a great wife...
I wasn't even an awesome person at all!

I was impatient...I was unkind...sarcastic...wrong.

tonight wasn't a good night.

but tomorrow morning maybe things will be better.

I will hold my tongue.
I will count to 10.
I will choose patience.
I will say I'm sorry.

"Mawidge..."

"...Mawidge that bwessed awangement!
A dweam within a dweam..."

I was talking with my brother (newly engaged) the other night and he was going on about his sweetie and how much he misses her and wishes he could spend more time with her. Aw...right? Except for at that moment as he rattled on and on, I looked over at my husband lying on the couch and recalled how the day before we had argued...for quite some time...about the mailkey. A mailkey? Really? How did we go from "dating bliss" to 30 hot headed minutes of "who should get the mail". ???
Listening to him talk, I started to miss the dating we had...everything being exciting and lovely. Hearts skipping, feeling flustered, wanting to never be apart, late night phone conversations. Oh those were great times! So exciting.
But wait - am I saying that marriage is nothing like that? Isn't that the message society sends? Excitement, passion, and freedom are all chucked out the window the minute you say "I do". No more fun. No more romance. No more you.
Not true.
Of course it isn't the same relationship as it was when you are dating...you are living with this person! Eating, sleeping, washing, cleaning, etc. Everything becomes different and little things (aka. the mailkey) become a big deal. I'm not entirely sure this can be avoided. When God posed the idea of marriage to His fellow angels, I wonder if they thought "Ok so you take two flawed humans...they fall in love, get married, have kids, deal with stress and life and have different opinions and they are supposed to stay together forever? Riiiight...go team."
And so the relationship changes....but it gets better! It's fine to let your mind drift to those "glory days", but there is no way I want to go back there. Are you kidding? I love marriage!
I LOVE that I wake up/go to bed with him every night/every morning.
I LOVE that he buys me donuts/chips/candy when he knows I'm having a tough day.
I LOVE that he still tries to romance me at the most inopportune times just to make me laugh.
I LOVE that I my heart still flutters when his hand brushes mine.
I LOVE that he calls me throughout the day just to say hi.
I LOVE that we are silly.
I LOVE that we fight about the "mailkey" and other such nonsense(which was properly resolved by the way)
I LOVE that when I get up in the morning I see the Bible on the table that he was reading while eating cereal before work.

I LOVE MY MARRIAGE!



*I know that to some of you "seasoned" wedded people, this is not news, but in this world we have to fight for our marriages and maybe I gave you a reason to be thankful for yours today?