Big Girls Are Best

It's my mom's 70th birthday today. We're having a big party for her at her newly renovated house with family and friends. It's kind of a big deal. Reflecting on my mom, just like my dad... she has influenced me in very big ways. I have BIG parents with huge personality and my mom is not to be overshadowed by her larger than life husband. The older I get, the more I realize how great my mom truly is.

My mom became a nurse back when that's what you did if you were a woman. She was determined to go away on missions if her relationship with my dad didn't result in marriage... that's what she has always told us anyway. She worked hard as a nurse, but I think she worked harder at home. When we were growing up she had a name for herself while she cleaned gutters, gardened, painted, and fixed everything up around our house - she was Edith the German maintenance lady. While I was playing in the yard... she was on the roof doing something. I asked her a question... and she responded in German to me, then said that my mom wasn't home in a thick accent! Seriously funny! I think it may have only happened once, but I loved it! She has always taken pride in her home and garden.

When my dad decided to leave teaching and become a pastor, he waited for my mom to agree to the idea for a whole year before they moved forward with it. She gave up a lot of her time, energy, and privacy to follow my dad into the ministry. She has done everything in the church from nursery, to coffee service, to playing the piano, to ladies bible study. Her hospitality is unmatched by any other pastor's wife I know. She should teach a course on how to support your husband in the ministry, because there are a ton of women out there that have no idea what they're doing.

My mom always worked; night shifts, day shifts and would sleep strange hours. I remember her vacuuming at 2am and her being asleep when we'd leave for school. She taught me to cook, sew, clean, do laundry, take time to read, work hard, take care of my own things and label them, make a house look like a home, be present, how to camp and do it well, get dirty, be a lady, be kind, stand tall, exercise to feel good, eat well, dress well, be a problem solver, invite others in, treat people from all over like family, and bring all my troubles to Jesus.

My mom is big. I don't mean in size, I mean in life. She is what U2 means when they sing "Big Girls Are Best".
She's not on her back, she's the glue, she keeps it all together.
She feels every sensation and has a smile like salvation.
And we know... she's a sexy momma ;)
She's political, spiritual, she's not superficial...

I love my mom. She's part of why I'm so BIG.

Big Girls Are Best - U2