I had to choose whether to be a mom and grandmother today or to be a daughter. I chose to be a daughter. But the reason put me in a reflective mood about all the moms in my life…one of whom is Kim.
Let me back up so you have some context. As most of you know, my husband is in the military. We move all over the country, sometimes closer to family and sometimes farther away. These past two years, we’ve been in Washington State about twenty minutes away from the town where I grew up and where my parents still live. They are both in their eighties, and my dad is becoming frail. We’re set to move again, this time to Kentucky. We planned to celebrate Mother’s Day with them, our daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter about 90 minutes away.
But our daughter’s family came down with colds on Friday. Even though it wasn’t COVID, we didn’t feel right exposing my parents–my father in particular–to illness. So I had to choose. Was I going to celebrate with my daughter and granddaughter or with my mom? I chose my mom. Presumably (or as my grandmother used to say, “God willing and the creek don’t rise.”), I will have plenty more opportunities to celebrate with my daughter. The ones with my mom are likely more limited. No one knows the future, of course, except God. My grandmother also used to say, “God only knows…and He ain’t tellin’.”
Moms are incredibly important people. So are dads, but we’ll get to them next month. And as your kids get older and start to look for spouses, one of the things you pray for is someone who was raised by a mom who modeled good parenting. I’m so fortunate that my kids have two, fabulous mothers-in-law: Kim and Karen.
And then comes the grandmother phase. I’ve watched the bond between my kids and their grandparents grow. My mom gets away with saying things I never could. She’s mothered my kids on many occasions, sometimes better than I could have. Grandparents play a special role in a child’s life! So trusting your grandkids to their other grandparents is not something to be taken for granted. Again, I get to share grandma duties with Kim and Karen. I’m moving away from my granddaughter and trusting Karen to spoil my little girl in my absence. I’m moving closer to my son but not nearly close enough to celebrate as many milestones in our grandson’s life as Kim will get.
No one likes missing out, but there’s great comfort in knowing that your kids and grandkids have mothers-in-law and grandmothers who are wonderful examples of Godly faith and earthly love.