Mother's Day

Mother's Day weekend was a nice one this year.

Saturday, I had the pleasure of watching a friend of mine take a HUGE step with her family...they took the next step by participating in our Family Dedication ceremony at church. For those of you who are not familiar, this is a small ceremony in which the parents (with their children with them on stage) take the very public step of committing to raise their kids with God's influence. It's such a touching thing, and a very public one, as they do this in front of all who are in attendance. Congrats Dawn and your entire family...I am so proud of you guys!

Also, as I was in service to watch this, they announced the winner of the "Mother of the Year" award. The recipient was someone whom I have also served alongside of and I feel is very deserving of this award. It was even more touching to hear the touching words from her husband (who serves in the Reserves). Lia is an amazing woman, while raising her sons has given them a wonderful family at home and a church family. While her husband serves, she fills in at Cub Scout functions, including their camp outs. She also found time to serve in the Children's Ministry on top of all of this!

Today, my mom and I slept in a bit and then went to have brunch with my brother and niece. It was a bit awkward (some of you know our family situation...we called an Amnesty Day for today), but was OK in the end. Mostly, because my brother let us take my niece for the afternoon...the best gift he could have given her! My mom and I brought Nina back to the house to visit with Holly (our dog) and play for a bit. We then went to the movies and saw Earth (Nina picked it). I truthfully didn't think I would like it much but was in such awe at the wonderful sights in this movie. We all enjoyed it and then had ice cream and we took her home.

It was sad to see her crocodile tears when she realized we were taking her home...she (like most kids) doesn't really understand what is going on and has been used to weekend visits as far back as she could remember. But, we explained simply that she has school tomorrow and has to be home for that...in all earnestness, with big tears, she says "Family is more important than school." How do you answer this...she is right and hopefully we will all see the light soon!

On a happier note, I must brag on my niece for a moment...she is so stinkin' smart! This kid can read anything you put in front of her. At first when we were at brunch, I thought she must know what the writing on the bottle says from having seen it enough (juice). So, I took out a clipping from the newspaper with the movie times and some other stuff...she read almost 100% of the words on it...including "directing". She is only in kindergarten and has been identified as gifted, but not having seen her in so long...I was floored! We spent lots of the time in the car playing a game we made up...we would choose a letter and then name all the words we could think of that began with it. She loved this game, and sadly, was much better than I at it!

To all of those that I didn't get a chance to say this to (many of you, because my text messaging for some reason wasn't working today!), Happy Mother's Day! This includes those who don't have children...we have dogs, friends, family and many other ways that we "mother".

Love,

Gina