Being Mimi, Mom and so much more

Being a "Mimi" is one of the greatest things.  I loved my kids, and now I LOVE my grandkids.  Whenever I go anywhere it's like I'm constantly looking for cool stuff that the kids will like.  I hear that there are others that do this too.  Some of these stores have SUCKER written all over it.

This past week my daughter Jennifer and I took our mom/daughter trip all the way out to Branson.  I had no idea how far it really was.  13 hours with a 6 month old is a bit of a challenge (yes we had the baby with us, he's attached right now).  Both were real troopers!!!  Caffrey wasn't too keen on the carseat after the first 13 hour trip.  Can't say that I blame him.  But he slept alot and seemed to handle it pretty well.

It's always great to have some time to talk with kids. I miss having my kids in the car with me.  That was always the best talking time.  They would tell me about their day and what was bugging them etc.  Jenn and I enjoyed that time again.  So wonderful to catch up.  To hear her points of view on motherhood, being a pastor's wife and life in general.  To be honest I was a little apprehensive about the trip.  I only messed up once, well maybe twice.  I noticed that the time she gets most upset is when I try to tell her I understand.  Well, it's been 24 years since I've been in her situation and I probably have forgotten some of the trauma of a being a mom and hearing your baby crying.  I quickly had to apologize, because I don't remember how it felt.  I just know it must hurt to hear your baby cry.  I do remember being in distress when she would cry all the way home from Columbus, GA to Dalton, GA. That was distressing and she screamed the whole time.

The other neat thing I now know she is experiencing is the need to be whole with her family.  She

missed her husband, just as I missed mine.  It's really weird, but you do feel a little lost without your other half there.  They are used to working as a team with their baby and they have that down pat.  And that's the way it's supposed to be!!!   God made two parents to be the mommy and the daddy.  She kept saying "I don't know how people do it without a husband to help!"  I did a lot of my kids by myself and I know, it wasn't easy.  It's easier to give in and do mess up and say the wrong things and not get corrected.  It's easier to do just let them watch that show and to go along with the crowd.   It's easier to go through the drive thru than it is to sit down with your kids as a single-mom family.  So I'm very proud of her for seeing how tough it is.  As she said, it's tough enough with both of us.

She also gave me great insight into what I did right as a mom.  I am still amazed that we have five kids that we blended together and they are starting to really enjoy being together and they all love Jesus.  The latter is what I'm most proud of.  I asked her what did we do that was different.  She told me it was our Friday night worships with our kids.  We used to sing and then tell a story every Friday night we had the kids.  We created a tradition about dinner that evening and our time together.  They all tell different stories about those evenings.  Trevor reminded me tonight about how he hated that we would have Chinese food.  He would always end his prayers with AMENT.  When we get our kids home on a Friday evening, they still enjoy our Friday night worship time.

I remember so many walks on the beach with my precious husband praying about our children.  I knew

the odds for them turning out good were not as high as if they had all had their own parents together.  I knew also that the only thing that would make the difference would be prayer.  So pray we did.  We had a regular 3 mile walk on the beach at our "beach" in Jacksonville.   John would start praying and go through the oldest to the youngest to our parents and I would follow and do the same.  Those walks were so precious and sacred to me.  I miss them so very much.  I remember praying at the end, please let them know you, love you and serve you.   God is so good, he's letting me see my prayer being answered.  They each talk about how they love Jesus.  In 3 weeks we will get our oldest granddaughters as their parents go on a mission trip to New Orleans.  What a joy to have the girls, but especially knowing that their mom and dad are serving Him is even more of a joy. (More on that when we get to experience it)  We can't wait to see where God is going to take each of them.

Experiencing our children as adults is a treat.  I'm so glad we can experience this together. God is good.  It's been worth the challenges that we had in the past to see the ends of the stories.  I wish I could say we did it perfectly, but we didn't.  I just know it took a lot of prayer and trust.    I hope this hasn't seemed like I'm bragging, but I am very proud of all of our children.  I know it really had nothing to do with John and Me except we trusted God to do what he was going to do.  I hope you see God as trustworthy too.