She is at home..."puttzing" as we mid-west women LOVE to do from time to time - just being at home and getting much done.
However, I must take this chance to share with you a little personal thank you card and birthday wish as well......
So here I go -
77 reasons why I am SO thankful for Marilyn, my mother - n - law whom I call MOM.......
1. Thank you for all of your prayers -- all the time. I know you pray not only for Brendan and I but for our kids and all of the grands as well.
2. Thank you for your continued service to our church as an elder and mentor to the women!
3. Thank you for praying on your knees for the women that come to you within your circle and within our church. You are indeed a mentor and a friend to them.
4. Thank you for inviting me to your Thursday luncheons where I feel so special and the center of attention.
5. Thank you for all of the desserts you made over the years at the drop of a hat to help with something -- especially Taylor's Wedding Celebration!!
6. Thank you for your point on point realism.... and how you speak LOVE and truth to others.
7. Thank you for extending grace to me when I needed a good smack for my comments.
8. Thank you for being a big part of the beginning of the Insurance office and helping to put into place procedures and policies that we still use today!
9. Thank you for treating EACH of your grandchildren like you are the ONLY one you have.
10. Thank you for making the "ONE" grandson feel so special and loved and cared for.
11. Thank you for being the BEST great-grand mom to your great grandchildren and loving them so individually and unconditionally.
12. Thank you for taking on Blake, Blaker, as your grandson as well and how he loved you and you showered him as your own.
12. Thank you for always having an anniversary card ready for us and a birthday card with cash for us when we so often forget yours and tell you each birthday ...."your present is coming".
13. Thank you for always sending the thank you cards and helping me to teach my kids to be grateful!
14. Thank you for listening to me - when I have to vent or rant and always reminding me of whom to pray for.
15. Thank you for being the one that can talk 'smack' to my husband and he listens to you! ( As, you are doing it in love! )
16. Thank you for being that prayer warrior with me EVERY morning during a very hard season in our marriage and YOU were fighting for us and for me through prayers.
17. Thank you for NOW being that prayer warrior that I can call and ask you to intercede
on behalf of myself for prayer or for another....as I know your prayers are heard!
18. Thank you for making me feel like a daughter instead of an in law or an out law.
19. Thank you for speaking truth to your son when it was VERY hard, and trusting my decision to fight for our marriage.
20. And thank you for disciplining him as a child..... as those seeds you sowed .... and watered... came into fruition.
21. I will say thank you on behalf of Quenten's wife as well.... as I know she appreciates how you extend love and prayers for him and their family! ( And you share his birthday!! )
22. I will say thank you on behalf of Becky's husband as well....as I know you extend love and prayers for her and her family...... ( what am I kidding?? - I know you do this for ALL of your children!)
23. I will say thank you for extending prayers and being on your knees for my own family in Wisconsin and how you have loved on them from afar....
24. Thank you for stopping in to pray over Diandra a few weeks ago and taking the time to visit her and my mom....and extending that love as family does.....
25. Thank you for telling me in a very very sweet moment that you were so sorry for what had happened within our marriage -- your tears and your heartfelt compassion for me - gave me strength to know....to fight!
26. Thinking back...to 1984 when Brendan had broken up with me - and that fateful night when I cried off my mascara in your hands and your stated to me that "if Brendan was God's best for you, it would work out, but if God had better plans" Well, she stated knew a better boy would be there for me in God's timing.
27. Thank you for not asking questions when you caught me coming down from upstairs that time when we were teens, probably in 1983, I am pretty sure I would of died right there......LOL. ( We repented -- we were stupid kids! LOL)
28. Thank you for answering the call from Brendan first and then from the Vice-Principal back in 1984 when Brendan and I had skipped out and they called your work to double check a note that I had forged.... LOL We were covered by you!
29. Thank you for the NUMEROUS times you probably wanted to pull Brendan by the ear and give him an earful and instead you prayed..... wow!
30. Thank you for the NUMEROUS times you shared with us about praying instead of complaining.
31. Thank you for the NUMEROUS times you prayed with us!!
32. Thank you for teaching me how to make several of your favorite recipes.
33. Thank you for teaching me how to antique.
34. Thank you for showing me and giving interest to me when I wanted to decorate and began to see how to make a house a home.
35. Thank you for reminding me that soap operas were something I should not spend extra time watching.
36. Thank you for speaking truth to me about church and WHY we go to church ..... that is was about WHAT I should be seeking from God while the preacher preached -- not looking to see what the preacher would do for me!
37. Thank you for speaking truth to me and reminding me of WHY we pray!!
38. Thank you for speaking truth to me when I wanted to QUIT something.
39. Thank you for all the clothes I get blessed with here and there cause you find them and think I need them.
40. Thank you for going to consignment shopes and finding my children just what they need.
41. Thank you for blessing Taylor with the stuff needed ....for her kitchen, for her heart, and for her jewelry box.
42. Thank you for unconditionally loving Jake as your new grandson!
43. Thank you for loving unconditionally loving Ava as a new great grand child and praying for her!
44. Thank you for buying those salt and pepper shakers for HP when his kitchen was empty-- and ALL the other stuff you showered him with!
45. Thank you for always having a smile on your face and reminding us - reminding me to love unconditionally.
46. Thank you for setting an example of 'holding you tongue' when it comes to your husband -- and displaying the better way to get to a man's heart.
47. Thank you for teaching and showing us a TRUE example of 'hospitality' to others and grace!!
48. Thank you for praying for us both ( Bren and me) to we could begin to see how to trust God.
49. Thank you for driving both Brendan and I to that fateful tennis match in Milwaukee that cold cold bitter night back in 1982 and sat at a coffee shope for 2 hours while we enjoyed our Celebrity Tennis Match date cause you and Dad felt the two 17teen year -olds should not be driving in bad weather!
50. Thank you for extending the invite and taking me to Missouri to meet family that year in 1983 -- what a trip!
51. Thank you for letting me stay with you that summer before we got married when I needed a refuge from my home.
52. Thank you for mailing ALL of Brendan's letters that summer he spent in Florida and I was working.... 1983 I believe!
53. Thank you for SAVING all of my letters I wrote to him-- which brought me such comfort when I felt our marriage was over!
54. Thank you for SAVING all the silly NOTES that I left on his car while he worked at McDonald's and I worked at Ponderosa back in 1981/1982....... I cherish each one!
55. Thank you for always being there to say YES whenever I need a casserole, breakfast dish, or something for a dinner or meeting.
56. Thank you for always being at each tupperware or Pampered Chef party I tried to do and bought stuff to help me earn whatever!
57. Thank you for ordering from EVERY Central Elementary fund raiser or Church fundraiser for the kids.
58. Thank you for each Student of the Week Luncheon you attended and EVERY volleyball and soccer game you came to!
59. Thank you for loving on my husband those 20+ years before he came to me my husband and teaching him about love.
60. Thank you for raising a man that extends love like Jesus does and is obedient to God's word and tithing.
61. Thank you for teaching and raising a man who values loyalty.
62. Thank you for teaching and raising a man who is tenderhearted and responsive when He hears God speak.
63. Thank you for loving him - my man-- even when you hated his actions.
64. Thank you for sharing your heart to me and allowing me to pray for you when you are struggling.
65. Thank you for just being a friend, a dear one, that I can rely on and love to hang with.
66. Thank you for appeasing me and watching the AWFUL movie.."Bridges of Madison County". Little did I know at that time how I was so misguided and felt 'this' movie was just perfect. When I think about how I made you sit in that theater and watch it with me and you did...cause you were just showing me love. .....But later you had the chance to really teach me about what and where LOVE comes from.... At that time...little did we both know what would unfold over the next 5-6 years...but God did.
67. Thank you for always cooking the Turkey!
68. Thank you for always providing such glorious memories and such such for our kids at IH.
69. Thank you for each sunburn you got while playing with my kids at that pool!
70. Thank you for the summer trips to Wisconsin and the games we played around Grandma's dining room table.
71. Thank you for the summer we lived with you before we started teaching.
72. Thank you for the finances you always provided when we were very poor.
73. Thank you for the sweet little gifts here and there just for me. And the many mornings when I was at your house to just watch the Macy's Parade....with hot chocolate!!
74. Thank you for the many Ann's Tea House meals where we were treated like royalty.
75. Thank you for being that Proverbs 31 example.
76. Thank you for being you....
And 77. I thank God that we get to spend another Thanksgiving Day with you -- and I know I will help peel some potatoes but you will do most of the work -- and I am thankful for that. I pray we have several more!
Lord, protect her -- guide her -- bless her -- and may many more just express on this link - what she means to them!
Lord, I believe in the living and letting another know now before they join you -- (not that MOM is checking out any time soon -- we thank you for her good health -- but I realize that with each year, she is getting closer to being with you, rather than staying with us)
Lord, again -- just be everything for her and to her...and bless her socks off today as You have so graciously given me a mother in law that has been a mother in love for many years. I cherish her prayers as much as I cherish my own mother's ..... there is a love there that supersedes 'blood' with her and that is unconditional and I am most thankful.
Happy Birthday Marilyn!
Looking at you and watching your life over the past....45 years that I have know you -- God won!
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