Train up a child...

     I am sitting in my chair in my room. God must have decided to give the mothers in South Georgia an additional present because it is an absolutely beautiful day today.  My personal Mother's Day has been really quiet.  Travis and Sarah are both working, so couldn't make the trip up.  But that is okay.  I realized today that since they have both grown and flown the coop, we probably have spent more Mother's Days apart than we have together.  But I have learned that distance is relative when you are talking mothers and children.  Two years ago, this weekend, I was with Travis and Sarah when they received their Bachelor's Degree from SIU-E.  That was such a cool, but humbling experience-not to mention how awesome a Mother's Day gift it was!  Having been a single parent for most of their formative years, I have asked myself many times if the choices I made while they were at home would help or hinder them as they got older.  I am still not sure of the answer to that question.  I just know that without the help of a loving family, especially Mom and Dad, who nurtured not only me, but also Travis and Sarah through some really difficult times, my children would not be the independent, gainfully employed, driven, but grounded in the Gospel people they are today. 

So, thanks to Mom and Dad... Thanks to Aunt Carol, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jimmy... Thanks to the surrogate mothers in Primary and Young Women and the father figures in Scouting and Young Men....Thanks to all those who had even a smidgen of influence in making my kids into who they are today.

I am their mother and for that I will eternally be grateful...   They make me feel proud and humble just to be around them..

I love you, Travis and Sarah.......