Moments with Mom

Mother's Day is quickly approaching, so it's natural that my mom is on my mind quite a bit more often, I'd say.
  Commercials blare the beauty of a mom and Cards abound in every store right now.
        Mother's Day is everywhere.

What struck me yesterday, as I thought about my mom, was that she is still kind of everywhere in my life, even though she isn't here.

She lives on through my children.
Her blue eyes blaze in both of my children. (Which never ceases to amaze me because neither Michael nor I have blue eyes)
   Her fair skin is found in Elizabeth.
Mom's love of games lives on through Joseph.
    Mom's joy for reading and writing is also Elizabeth's favorite past time.
Her sense of humor is often the same sense of humor Joseph has.
  She lives on through them in ways I never thought about until this week.


    She lives on through my memories
Last Saturday, I attended a mother/daughter tea. Growing up, that was one of our yearly traditions at church. We would dress up (semi-fancy) and go to a banquet. Those were special times with my mom I will always remember. As I attended the first one with my daughter (and our 2 adopted college daughters who are part of our family as well) on Saturday, I could not help missing mom. And I remembered the many mother/daughter teas we attended growing up.
      We played a lot of Dutch Blitz growing up. Recently, I played with my sister in law and Joseph, and I will probably never play a hand of Dutch Blitz without thinking of mom.
   Mom and I always stayed up to watch the Hallmark movies the few times a year they would come on the local channel. Now Elizabeth and I watch them together.
   countless memories play in my mind, almost daily. Too many to number here, but she lives on through them.

  She lives on through the Linda A. Ferguson Memorial Scholarship
    We recently awarded the 2014 Linda A. Ferguson Memorial Scholarship , which obviously carries her name and is done in memory of her. Her legacy lives on through the awarding of that. And as we are gearing up into full time planning mode once again for the 5K, mom is close in my heart.

I miss mom always with a heart ache.  In some aspects 3 years without her have seemed an eternity. A lifetime of events have happened. Some so painful, I can't even bring words to write about them. Some so joyful, words don't quite do the moments justice. Life keeps going. Sometimes it's tough not having mom here for them. But she lives on through those around me and in my heart daily. I am eternally grateful for the mom I had. As mother's day approaches, you will likely hear more stories of mom. But for today, I pause and thank God I had such a beautiful mama who left a legacy behind.  She lives with Jesus, but she lives on in some of the most obvious daily ways.
 

1. Me and mom, 2010

2. Me and Elizabeth, mother daughter tea, 2014