A Mother’s Blessings!

If today was my last day here on earth then I will have lived an interesting blessed life! My biggest life blessings are my children (and my grandchildren). Children are gifts from God! I think that God expects us to know this and thus treat our children accordingly. And those who do not will have to answer for their trespasses, whether here on earth or in the next life or at the pearly gates or wherever.

My first blessing is Holly Irene! If I had not known that children were gifts before her, I certainly knew after her. I KNEW before each of my children were born what their personality was going to be, yes, I did! I knew that this baby was a very intelligent sensitive quiet reflective person. Holly has a great ability to just “know” how things are, without ever having to explain them to her; that one quality has always amazed me, even today.  There are many, many things each child has said, done, etc., so I will try to tell just a few in this post.

Holly:

• 20 word vocabulary at 9 months, she knew concepts like colors, boy, girl. One day she said puppy, sock, blue truck and the rest is history.
• could count to ten, say her ABC’S, and carry on adult conversations at 12 months. She used this to her advantage, older people would find her so cute they gave her money!
• could spell words at 15 months. I pulled up to Walmart and she said “I know what that says!” I thought she would say “Walmart”, so I said “What does it say?” She replied “It says W-A-L-M-A-R-T”.
• She could read books at 3 years old.
• When I took her to kindergarten the first day, I asked her if she knew why she was going to school. She promptly told me, “I am going to school to become a useful citizen of the United States!” (as if I was stupid for not knowing such a thing)
• Her teachers would just rave about her to me, almost weekly. She has made me proud of her many, many times.
• She had to take the IQ test when she was in the second grade so the school system could place her in the Gifted and Talented Class. She really could have care less to take the test, probably didn’t want to take the stupid test, but I thought very long and hard that being in the G & T class was a good thing for her, so I made her take the test. I took her to the education service center for the test, I was a little unsure that this was in her best interest but my mothering instincts said it was, so there we were. When she came out after the test, she was very, very quite, I could tell that she was in the deep thought mode, so I tried not to bug her about the test. BUT I had to know how she felt, so I asked her three times “How was the test?”, after the third time she finally said “Mother, why is a hard cover book better than a soft cover one?” I knew that the IQ test had opened ended questions on it, and was relived that I had not forever harmed my child by making her take that stupid pigeon holing ridiculous test! We then discussed the difference in hard cover versus soft cover books.
• She is one of the sweetest, caring persons I know. She was always befriending and standing up for the underdog.
• Her picture seemed to be always in our home town paper for one thing or another she was doing. One picture showed her in a pioneer costume jumping up in excitement at a famous oil well bringing in the first oil in our hometown’s history of a large oil company being founded there.
• In the Choir class musical production of her junior year, she portrayed Conrad Birdie’ s mother in Bye Bye Birdie. She received a standing ovation from the packed community center theatre!
• She was always on the Honor Roll, won many, many awards, won contests and graduated with Honors. She was also voted “Most Unique” out of her graduating class of 500. In our family, we find being unique, standing out in a crowd a very, very good thing!
• She grew up to be such a responsible, loving, hard-working, smart, creative, gifted adult. The kind of person that you would want to call your best friend.
• She is a very wonderful mother to her daughter, Ruby.

My second blessing is Rachael. I knew this baby was a feisty, determined, smart, loyal person. I learned what different gifts God gives us and how each one should be cherished. Rachael has always amazed me with her tenacious determination to do anything she wanted to do.

• Slept through the night at 6 weeks, just wanted to be laid in her crib to go to sleep.
• Hardly never fussed or cried when she was baby, very active, it was like she had to much to learn in a very short time, so get out of her way!
• Looked at life in a very funny matter-of-fact way.
• Could put puzzles together really, really fast when she was 12 months old.
• Had many boys chasing her at an early age. I would buy her new pants and very soon the pants would have holes in the knees. Every time I asked her how did this happen she would sigh and say “I had to run away from the boys and I fell down!” She thought that I should have known this and why was I asking!
• Her picture appeared on the front page of our hometown paper, showing her with her toungue stuck out and curled on her lip while intently focused on the pumpkin face jack-o-lantern she was painting. The caption for the picture called her a future pumpkin genetic engineer. I thought a 5 year old very determined one!
• One day on the way to school the radio announcer mentioned it was Elvis’s birthday. A few days later I found out from her teacher that for Show n’ Tell that day, Rachael’s show n’ tell was a tribute to Elvis’s birthday singing “Blue Suede Shoes.” I quess the performance included dance movements and lip curls! 
• One day I walked by her fourth grade classroom, only she and her teacher were reciting the “Shirley Method of English”. Rachael was the only one standing up and reciting the very important lesson!
• She was my “wild child”, if one could really call Rachael a wild child. She told things exactly how she saw them with no tact or care of what anyone’s response would be. One day in her 6th grade band class, she thought a girl was getting special treatment that all the rest of the class deserved also. She promptly asked the teacher why was this girl getting special treatment, he told her that the girl was special and needed this treatment. Well, Rachael promptly stood up and told him that everyone was special! He told her since she was so special to go out in the hall! When she was called to the Principal’s office, she explained her side of the story and I guess the Principal must have agreed, I wasn’t called. I found this out only later in a conversation with the Principle.
• She wanted to go to high school in a near-by small town because they had agricultural classes, she took to Ag-tech classes like a duck to water. Welded like a pro!
• She was always on the Honor Roll, won many awards, won contests and graduated with Honors.
• One of the contests she won the prize was dinner and a picture taken with the current Miss America. She wrote a essay on what it meant to be an American.
• She grew up to be a very responsible, smart, hard-working, dependable, loyal, grounded person. The kind of person you would want in your corner.
• She is a very wonderful mother to Alexandria.

In My Daughter’s Eyes says it much better than I could.

My third gift is Stephanie. While I did not give birth to her, I consider her one of my children. She is my husband’s daughter. She is the free-thinking spirit in our family. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in International Human Relations in Brussels, Belgium. I guess you could tell that she is a very well- read intelligent person.

My fourth gift is Nathan. My husband’s son brought my fifth through eight gifts to me. The mother of our three wonderful, beautiful, smart granddaughters, Tammy. He is a very good father, works hard and is very involved in his children lives.

My ninth gift is Jeremy Tiger. I did not give birth to him or raise him, but I consider him my son. Holly brought this great man into our lives. The first time I met Jeremy I knew he was the right one for Holly.  After all, he was getting a very special gift of mine, he had to take care of that gift!  It is a very wonderful thing for a mother to know that daughter has a very special man to help build her life and family around. Their children will be truly blessed with these two parents.

My tenth gift is Alexandria Paige. The biggest brown eyes on the sweetest cherub face!Grandchildren are the extra special rewards for having your children. Alex is alot like her mother, Rachael. She finds the world a very exciting place to be explored and expects the world to find her exciting, too! She loves everyone in her family! Every time I hear her say “Nanny!” and she runs to me to be picked up, I think how truly blessed I am!

My eleventh gift is Ruby Marlene. A blonde, blue eyed angel! Ruby has my middle name. Ruby is alot like her mother, Holly. Ruby is very sweet, loving and accepting little person. When she lays her head on your shoulder, you feel very special.  When Ruby smiles at me, I KNOW that I am truly blessed!

I hope there will be more blessings in my life, but if not, I already have so many great ones! Each child has so much to offer the world, I cannot imagine what my world would be without each of mine. When I first started thinking about having a family, I wanted six children. I don’t know why six was the magical number, I just wanted six. I got more than I asked for, I have eleven and still counting!

Everyone has children in their lives, whether their own or nieces or nephews or friend’s children. If you have do not have any children in your life, I know somewhere near you there is a child just waiting for a dear friend to enter their lives.  Teach these children that they are gifts to be taken care of and cherished. Our children are our future!