Remembering my mother on her birthday!

My dad has asked me about the photo above several times over the past few weeks. He loved the photo of my mother especially and described it as "the photo that Uncle Wayne took with you standing between us, your arms in the air." I found the photo today -- on what would have been my mother's 84th birthday!

It hardly seems possible that she has been gone 2-1/2 years. I was driving down the road today and thought, "I'll give my mom a call" but, of course, caught myself before making the actual call. However, there was another reminder from one of the on-line card companies which sent me a reminder of her birthday!

Little Ava June was named after my mother whose name was Naomi June. For some reason, a lot of us seem to call her "Ava June" rather than just "Ava". I'm not sure if it's a name that seems to just run together or whether it is a reminder of my mother.

On a humorous note, it was my mother who called all the kids to remind them to call one of the others on their birthdays. We tried to beat her to the punch by making the call early so we could tell her, "Mom, we already did it!" (I actually sent a birthday text to Shonna at 12:04am on her birthday -- Mother would be soooo proud!)

And while I miss talking to her, I'm sure that most of us would say that we miss her prayer support most of all. To be able to pick up a phone and say, "Mom, Grandma, we need your prayers today" ... was such a treasure. From major decisions to prayer for a test in school, we all knew that whatever she was doing, she would set aside time to pray for that situation immediately. And early in the morning, you would find her in her 'chair' with her Bible and prayer list in front of her -- and while she might doze off somewhere during that time, she didn't leave until all of her brood had been prayed for that day!

So, Mother, we sure hope you are having an awesome birthday in heaven! And we make a promise that one day, we will be there to join you in an even bigger celebration.