Dear Mom,

Dear Mom, (of course others may read this and celebrate her with me!)

 Happy Birthday!  Today, even though we will spend most of the day apart (because you so generously gave up your birthday plans so that we can help our friends clean their new business!), I will be celebrating you.  What can I say to the woman who has devoted her entire life to my good?  How on earth can “thank you” even begin to scratch the surface of the enormity of how you have loved me, trained me, forgiven me, cherished and nurtured me?  I’m only finally beginning to understand your love for me now that I have a little one, toddling around and capturing my heart all over again every second.  Well, I cannot begin to cover all that I want to thank you for, but let me start …

Thank you for loving Christ.  I remember always having worship songs on when we were little and me dancing around to the music while you watched from the kitchen.  I remember dad listened to Elvis and I used to cry because somehow I thought he would go to hell because he listened to Elvis (where do kids get these ideas?!).  But you always reassured me that it was ok for him to listen to Elvis and that he wouldn’t go to hell.  Thank you for doing all your Bible studies and letting me witness you reading your BIble and praying and gathering with other women to do the same. 

Thank you for loving Dad.  Your witness as a wife is perhaps the most amazing way you have impacted my life.  I cannot name a better wife.  You are the epitome of selfless love.  I love how you love Dad.  I love watching you two, after 37 years, still loving each other and better friends now that ever.  Thank you for demonstrating, silently and faithfully, what it means to love and respect and serve your husband.  You have never criticized Dad to me. That is astounding.  What a witness.  And in return he has been such a loving faithful husband to you as well.  You two make marriage look like what it’s supposed to be!

Thank you for loving us.  Kris and me.  Thank you. You sacrificed your career to stay at home and be with us, even to homeschool us when most moms couldn’t wait for their kids to get school-aged so they could get out of the house.  Thank you for field trips in the woods behind our house, collecting leaves and bugs and flowers for our plant books.  Thank you for the preschool you taught, where we got to play with other kids.  Thank you for letting us experiment with what we loved.  Piano, soccer, basketball, ballet, tap, tumbling, t-ball, football–goodness!  We did it all.  Thank you for your faithfulness to give up your car-vanity and drive a mini-van (you’re worlds ahead of me in that department!) to tote us and all our stuff around.  THank you for taking us in when Daddy was work and letting us go in his office and visit.

Thank you for becoming a friend.  I’ve read that you can’t be your child’s friend until you first become their parent.  You definitely did it the right way. You were my parent, training and nurturing and disciplining me while I was young, so that now you can be my friend.  And that you truly are. You’re my best friend (other than that guy I married! :-)).  I’d rather sit and talk to you than anyone else.  You are the most amazing listener, totally compassionate, loving, sympathetic and wise. I value what you say.  I value your insights, thoughts, perceptions.  You are truly wise.  I pray someday I can be half the woman that you are.

So today I just wanted to say that Mom, I’m proud of you.  I’m proud of how you’re handling the difficult things in your life. I’m proud of your courage, your joy, your perspective on life. I’m proud to be called your daughter. Yesterday, someone at the retreat suddenly made a connection and said, “Oh! You’re a Zyp!” ANd I had to smile and proudly say, “Yes I am.”  ANd I am proud, Mom.  Proud to be your daughter.  I love you so much.  Thank you for being my Momma.

Happy Birthday.

Love,

me