Mother's Day....

I did a little (and I mean little) bit of research on Mother's Day. The Mother's Day as we know today was originally started by Anna Jarvis. She started the day to honor her mother who had passed away. This was in the early 1900s. In 1914, Congress made the day "official."

Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. Proverbs 31:28

This year was my first official Mother's Day as a mother with a child outside the womb. Two years ago, I was pregnant but didn't know it. Unfortunately, we ended up losing that baby to a miscarriage. Last year, I was pregnant with Luke. This year, Luke was with us.

I was in tears several times yesterday because I was just so thankful for Luke. I thanked God for allowing me (and trusting me) to be a mother to him. Luke is ultimately God's.

I too am also thankful for my own mother. Here is a photo of her from last night (I'll explain what she has in her arms a little bit later in this post).



We're also thankful for Marc's mom. Though we didn't see her yesterday, Marc did call her. We did see her and Marc's dad last weekend for a dinner. This photo is of Marc's mom, holding Luke in the hospital the morning after he was born.



Also, Happy Mother's Day to our sister-in-law, Amber. She's the wonderful mother of our two nieces and wife to my brother, Joel. Here's a photo of Amber and Natalie (her daughter) last night. Unfortunately, you can't see Amber's face in this photo. That's because she was playing a game with Natalie.



I also want to say, "Happy Mother's Day," to my grandmother.

For my first "official" Mother's Day, the three of us went to church where we saw a WONDERFUL video about Mother's. It was also great to see some child dedications of some children of couples in our Sunday School class.

After church, we went home and had lunch. Luke presented me with my gift that he gotten for me.



Yep, he (or Marc) bought me the book, "Treasuring God in our Tradition," by Noel Piper. This book came highly recommended by friend Jill. Luke also got me a very SPECIAL card to go with the book.

My mom's birthday is May 9. So, each year, we get the privilege of celebrating her birthday with Mother's Day. This year, we all gathered, at my mom's request, at my parents' house -- about 45 minutes from here. If you remember from previous posts, I don't come from a large family. So, our gathering consisted of us, my parents, and my brother and sister-in-law and their two girls, Grace and Natalie.

Our family gatherings always consist of a "pre-eating" snack. This would be where my brother and Marc take over. Now you know why Marc runs so many miles all of the time. It's to eat all of the food he does. I guess it also explains why I don't lose the weight I want to. It's because I tend to not say "No" to this type of stuff.



During this time of pre-eating, my dad was outside grilling marinaded turkey. So, Luke sat in the high chair and ate his supper. He's really gotten into eating toast lately with his meal, so here he is, eating toast. And yes, he did eat some other things after the toast.



Sometime, in the middle of all of this, our niece Grace had been outside, blowing bubbles. She's 3 years old, and she did manage to spill bubbles on her pretty dress. She didn't like the feel of the wet dress, and so she thought she should put the dress in the dryer. Her mom told her that if she was going to do that, she needed to put something else on. Seeing how she didn't have any other clothes to put on, my mom got her one of her t-shirts to wear. Do you think it might be a bit big?



Finally, the food was ready. We had the grilled turkey from my dad, oriental cabbage salad, roasted vegetables (YUM), and of course, strawberry whip (this is a favorite in my family and someday, I'll post the recipe). Here's the food spread. Believe me, we had plenty.



After supper, while our food was digesting before dessert, the cousins (Luke, Grace, and Natalie) played on the floor for awhile. Grace likes to "read" to Luke. Last night, she read one of his books about "Things with Wheels." I'm not sure Luke fully listened, but it was cute to listen to.



Grace ALWAYS wants to hold "Baby Luke." So far, he has always let her, though I'm not sure he's going to let her much longer as he's becoming more and more mobile. Here's a VERY CUTE (at least in our opinion) photo of Grace and Luke, with Luke wearing a pretend hard hat.



Finally, we managed to get an updated photo of all three cousins. Some of you reading may think the 3-cousin photo isn't a real big deal. But, you have to understand something. Luke will not have a whole lot of options for cousins. Marc's an only child, so a Friesen first cousin simply won't happen. I only have one brother. He and his wife currently have two kids. Perhaps they'll have another one????? But, I don't anticipate 8 kids coming from them -- thus, not a lot of cousins for Luke. But anyways, here's the photo -- Luke, Grace, and Natalie.



Luke, being the baby, did get passed around. However, he didn't mind at all. He wasn't what I would've called a real "layed back" baby the first 6 months of his life. Lately though, at a big 9 1/2 months, he's doing so much better with just "taking life in." Here's a photo of Luke with his Uncle Joel (my brother).



And, because you haven't seen enough photos of Luke with other people that you may or may not know, here's a photo of Luke with his Grandpa Koehn (my dad). By this point, he was starting to get tired. When Luke gets tired, the thumb typically goes in his mouth.



Then, it was time to open some presents. Joel and Amber (my brother and sister-in-law) and Marc and I (along with all three kids) gave my mom a croquet set (that was part of the set that she was holding in an earlier photo on this post). She was wanting one for the backyard. She wants to be able to play with the grandkids with this game.

We also gave her some other fun things, including some earrings, some salad dressing mix that she likes, and some tea (she LOVES tea).

Look at the two cool things I received for Mother's Day -- the frame is from Joel and Amber, and the "Starbucks" giftcard is from my parents.

And no, these photos are not of us. I'll get some good photos of us before I hang it somewhere in our house.



You can't go wrong here....



Finally, it was dessert time. Now, I know this is a first....but, we had a Dairy Queen cake (O.K., so it is DEFINITELY not my first time to have a DQ cake, so please bear with the sarcasm).

We had a nice one for Mother's Day.



Here's another photo of my mom, just for fun. It's her, getting ready to cut into the frozen cake.



IT WAS ALL SO YUMMY!

Now, Mother's Day was special to me this year for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I have Luke, a blessing from God. I also got to celebrate it with my wonderful husband, Marc, who without him, we wouldn't have Luke :)

Second, there have been a few points in our marriage where we weren't sure if we'd be able to have Luke ourselves. We did fight infertility for a little while. Though we DEFINITELY don't win the prize on length of time to wait for a child, we did wait longer than some. I do remember Mother's Day several years ago, being a bit depressed because I wasn't a mother yet and I so badly wanted to be.

I want to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there. Those mothers include those with children of their own (biologically), adoptive mothers, women who have been mothers to children who maybe didn't have mothers of their own, women who have served as mothers when those childrens' mothers weren't around, and of course, women who are mothers but their children are up in heaven. I know I didn't cover everybody with this list, but I sure hope I came close.

Also, again, Happy Birthday to my mom! Mom -- next year is your big one (60)!

*****

My last post on this blog was about a wedding reception and a baby shower. The baby shower was for my friend, Alissa. Saturday, May 9, was also her birthday. So, in addition to my mom, each year on May 9, I get to wish Alissa a Happy Birthday as well.

So, Happy Birthday Alissa!

Here's a photo of Alissa, also holding Luke in the hospital. If I remember correctly, I think he was almost 48 hours old in this photo.



Thanks for once again reading my long blog post.

And, if you're wondering about my sarcasm with a DQ cake (in case you don't know me real well) -- I worked at a DQ from age 16 to 21. After a year away from DQ, I went to work for the parent company, International Dairy Queen. I held that job for 10 years until I had Luke. Marc and I easily decided the full-time position with traveling 70-80 nights a year would not work as mother. So, I'm currently in a "transitionary" parttime job, working 15 hours/week at none other than a DQ. I'm working as a training/marketing manager for a location in Wichita.

So, I have a LONG history with DQ. Yes, I've had DQ cake MANY MANY MANY times.