Dear Mom,

I've spent the last year making a list.  A list of the everyday gifts God has given to me.  Today is your day, a list all your own.  A list of all that you have given me.

1.  A strong will.
 2.  A great imagination-drawing homes in the mud.
 3.  A fiery temper.
 4.  Pushing me to never be satisfied.
 5.  Teaching me to enjoy Christmas for the celebration of Jesus' birth, not the gifts.
 6.  A faith that does not give up-praying in our next few meals.
 7.  TGIF nights filled with games & nachos.
 8.  Bike rides.

 9.  Summer days spent at the beach.
10. Teaching me to love my siblings.
11. Hand picking my elementary teachers.
12. Toast with butter and mustard to start the day.
13. Teaching me to do chores, even the wood pile.
14. Not allowing me to become a vain person.
15. Refusing to be the go between when Dad & I refused to talk to each other for months.
16. Pushing me to work for my college.

17. Allowing me to make my own choices.
18. Creavitity.
19. Incouraging me to try different sports & activities.
20. Allowing me to spend time with godly women through each phase of childhood & teenage years.
21. Subway dates, just the two of us.
22. Signing me up for Charlie's quiz.  Hoping the two of us would be the "one" for each other.
23. Coming to clean my house over and over as I was flat out sick with morning sickness.
24. Cracked & bleeding hands.

25. The idea of bringing snow inside so we didn't all have to go outside to play with it.
26. Your Thanksgiving dinners.
27. Hanging in the background with my kidlets while we moved our home.
28. Sliding down the sandpit with my boys.

Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

~ Philemon 1:1