Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom!

You are 70 today. 70 is so much younger today than it was when I was a kid. I thank God that you are still active and able to enjoy life.


I love this picture of you. I think first because it reminds me of my kids at that age. They used to laugh with the same expression. And second, it reminds me that you went through a very difficult upbringing, but you managed to turn life around and become a wonderful, loving mother to nine children and raised them to be productive, contributing, loving citizens. Not to mention the over 300 foster children that passed through our doors and your heart. You allowed God to work a work in and through you to set aside some things that would otherwise have held you and us back.


I love this one too. You look like a movie star…and just days after giving birth. Too bad I didn’t inherit that from you. :o) I remember you could still wear a bikini after the ninth baby, and guys would hit on you then too. I would have settled for a bikini after my first, but it didn’t happen for me. And about the guys hitting on me…ya, well, one can dream.

With a family of my own, I really can’t comprehend how you raised nine. Especially when I think of you having to cook from scratch, work the garden, make your own butter and soap, can food, help on the farm, do all that laundry, make all those sack lunches every day, sew & mend clothing, grocery shop and menu plan, taxi children around, counsel regarding heartbreaks and bullies, and still you remained sane. I have many days where I want to resign and I only have three. And to think that you had 5 teenagers at one time, yikes!


One of my favorite family pictures, taken before John or Melissa was born. I remember how you used to fix your hair with that Dippity Do gel and hair tape to hold it till it was set. You were strong, but yet still a girly-girl, always taking great pride in your appearance; you always took the time to look like a million dollars….another gene that I didn’t inherit.


I cherish the deep love you and dad had for each other when we were growing up. You both provided a secure environment for us kids. I remember the times you guys would dance around the living room and how you both would nap together on the floor. Guess that’s how you got your rest in with nine kids.


There we all are. Not sure how you did it. Many days I wish I could go back in time and relive just a day or two. Our kitchen was the heart of the home, we would all sit around the table on those benches and eat, do homework, spend time together. I remember visitors calling us the Walton’s.


This picture sits on my mantel; 50 years together. Hope I make it that far. :o) And, to think that you still have your natural hair color. Nine kids and you still haven’t gone grey??? What’s that about? Once again I missed another great gene.

Mom, thanks for taking the time and effort to instill Godly values and morals into me, for giving me a heritage to hold fast to, for instilling in me the knowledge to make a pair of pants from a piece of fabric, how to can pretty much any fruit or vegetable and how to stretch a chicken onto five nourishing meals. Thanks for teaching me how to be a good mom and for being my cheerleader; it’s nice to know you are always just a phone call away.

My blog name originated from the Rich Mullins song First Family, that I think so accurately describes our family. It's as if he had written it for us, I've just made a few minor adaptations:

My folks they were always the first family to arrive
With eleven people jammed into a car that seated five
There was one bathroom to bathe and shave in
Six of us stood in line
And hot water for only three
But we all did just fine

Talk about your miracles
Talk about your faith
My dad he could make things grow
Out of hard Nebraska clay
Mom could make a gourmet meal
Out of just cornbread and beans
And they worked to give faith hands and feet
And somehow gave it wings

I can still hear my dad cussin'
He's working late out in the barn
The spring planting is coming
And the tractors just won't run
Mom she's done the laundry
I can see it waving on the line
Now they've stayed together
Through the pain and the strain of those times

Talk about your miracles
Talk about your faith
My dad he could make things grow
Out of hard Nebraska clay
Mom could make a gourmet meal
Out of just cornbread and beans
And they worked to give faith hands and feet
And somehow gave it wings

And now they've raised nine children
One winter they lost a son
But the pain didn't leave them crippled
And the scars have made them strong
Never picture perfect
Just a plain man and his wife
Who somehow knew the value
Of hard work, good love, and real life

We may not have been a First Family in the eyes of the world, but you managed to make me feel as if we were.

I love you and hope you have a birthday that is as truly wonderful as you are. Wish I could be there to help celebrate your milestone day. Happy 70th birthday.

Philippians 1:3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.