Two Special Mother's Jesus Has Given Me!

Happy Mother's Day 2012!

I wanted to share a blog in your honor as my "Mother's Day card" to you this year.  Partly b/c I was running too fast to get a card in the mail in time (Truth hurts sometimes=) but mostly b/c I thought that I could maybe give you some verbal flowers for more people to see than just you and daddy!  "Kind of like showing you off a tad maybe!"  I could have come up with a picture that would be more beautiful of you, no doubt, but as this was the one taken just last weekend, I chose to use it!
With that said, I'll start my ramblings....
 I'll always associate the smell of yeast bread rising with you, Moma.  Today each time I mix up my own homemade bread I can still see in my mind eye your set of antique different colored bowls, the largest being yellow (if I remember correctly) filled with the makings of homemade yeast bread. (Other times you would use your antique wooden bowl to mix up bread by hand... these were the days long before bread machines!=)  Probably b/c I was about "nose level" with that bowl, I still remember taking a big whiff of the smell that I knew would soon be mouth-watering, warm, crusty, homemade bread.  Thanks, Moma for passing along to me your love for baking!  Thank you for allowing me to "mess up" your kitchen any time.  And for teaching me to clean it up afterwards! Thanks for the many times you used what you had on hands to make delicious meals... thus teaching me that any substitution was fine and would most likely work, as long as I never tried to ever substitute anything or anyone for Jesus in my life! Little could I have known how often I would use those substitutions on the mission fields in which the Lord has led us to minister.

Thank you for always being willing to "make do" with what you had, in other words, thank you for being so frugal.  I never knew growing up that we were "poor" for you always were so cheerful and made life so fun.  I remember many a night going to sleep to the sound of the hum of your sewing machine making me some much needed new bloomers or maybe it was Christmas for one of us.  And later as you taught me to sew, thanks for the lessons in patience that you taught me... "Laura, rip out that seam, it's crocked" , or "You caught an extra stitch here, you need to rip that out and re-sew it" Thus teaching me that only the best quality would work.  And though I teasingly tell you today that your sewing would be good enough for Dillards or Nordstroms and mine would sell at Walmart, I'm still VERY thankful that you taught me to sew. 

I never remember hearing you complain about anything.  I knew that you didn't have life easy, maybe, but you were never down-in-the-mouth about it.  And NEVER did you EVER speak DOWN or bad of Daddy!  That I LOVE about you! Thanks for standing by daddy through thick and thin... (mostly the thin ($)times) and for doing it cheerfully!  What an example you have been to me that I could be HAPPY anywhere the Lord led my man, and I would follow cheerfully and with Jesus we would make it and make it just fine!

As the above picture portrays you always made life fun!  I never remember being embarrassed to be around you, even in my teenage years, you were just as fun to have around as any of my friends!  Thanks for building that kind of relationship with me!  I want to thank you for MAKING ME come out of my shell.  As you well remember I was too backward to look at myself in the mirror, well almost.(did I get my ability to exaggerate from you too?!=)   I well remember you MAKING me to go out and "MAKE FRIENDS", when I would have been perfectly content to just sit back and listen to you chat with your friends. On another occasion,  I remember you MAKING me walk by and at least say "Hello" , You walked with me as moral support and I well remember being SO grateful for it was all I could do to walk straight, my knees were knocking so hard!  Years later when we landed on the mission field and I had to speak another language, I remembered that lesson to be friendly, even if my language limitations could only say my "Hello" with a smile!
Thank you for always loving Daddy and flirting with him in front of us kids!   I'll always be grateful for the healthy relationship that I watched you and Daddy exemplify in front of us!  We, by God's Help, want to live our lives pleasing Jesus first and then our mates!!
Another lesson that you taught me by example, was to never go to town in your cleanin' duds!(my choice of words, not yours!)  "Always dress up, when going to town!" were your words as I recall. As I've grown up, I've never forgotten that we are examples to the world around us of our Savior and how we dress is the 1st impression they may see of our Jesus!!
So today, I honor You, Moma and thank you for teaching me the "tricks of the trade"... giving me the confidence that I needed to try out new recipes, or to make a new dress, the ability to see "quality" in something old, and to make it look like new.
Thanks to you, Moma I was very well prepared for married life and today I "Rise up and called you Blessed!" Prov 31: 28  I love you so much and am so grateful to the Lord for the Godly heritage that you have passed on to me!  I'll always thank Jesus for choosing YOU to be my Moma! I love you! ~Laura

Happy Mother's Day, Mom 2012!

This blog post could never be complete without you, Mom Hausman...

You became "my 2nd Mom", on June 22, 1990, the day I became Mrs. Daryl Hausman!!!!  It was easy for me to call you "Mom and Dad" for I always called my parents "Daddy and Moma".=)  However, Credit must be given where credit is due... You are the answer to my own dear Moma's prayers, long many years before.  Moma began praying for my mate, while I was still in diapers and for his Mother who was caring for him. I'll always be grateful to God for you, Shirley Hausman, as my own special Mother-in-law! 

 Thanks so much Mom, for the special boy, your only boy, that you willing raised to love God.  Thank you for the example to him that you were in loving God 1st and your husband 2nd.  Thank you for the many thankless hours that you put into Daryl's life and for all the thankless jobs that comes with Motherhood that you did unselfishly in raising him.  Thank you for being willing to share him... actually to  "give him up" for me!  The older I get, the more I see of Mom's who didn't learn what it means to "LET GO" of their sons, and it makes me count my blessings all the more! Thanks, Mom for never standing in our way.  Thanks for letting go, even when it meant that we couldn't live close.  (and sometimes you could only see your "Hausman grand-kids" once a year, if that!) Thanks for not standing in our way even when we felt God's call to go into foreign missions.  I can only imagine what that must have felt like... to have to be the one to stay at home and worry PRAY!=) Thanks for giving of yourself too! You have always made me feel like I was "one of your own girls", and I'm SO blessed!

Dad and Mom Hausman and the Grandkids!

Thanks for the fun memories that our kids have of you!  They love you and Dad as much as they do my parents and that's just how I want it to always be!  Thanks for your fun-loving-ways.  You always make us laugh.  Another thing that I love about you, is your love for your husband still!!! Thanks for sticking with him.  Thanks for STILL LAUGHING AT HIS SILLY JOKES even after all of these years, the love that I see in your eyes when he's teasing you makes my heart skip a beat!  I want to be that kind of wife for years to come too!
Thanks for your TENDER heart!  I love the times we have gotten to cry together, to pray together, to share recipes together, to laugh together, and just to share "life lessons" together.  God has truly blessed me by giving  YOU to me as my Dearest Mother-in-law!
As our children get older, my prayer is that the Lord will prepare my heart to be as good of a mother-in-law, as you have been to me!  Hope your day today was as special as you deserve!   You are a dear and I love you VERY MUCH!  ~Laura