In My Daughter's Eyes

I am trying my hand at making home videos again... this time I started thinking of all my daughter has come through and overcome and decided to make a video about her life and what she means to me.

Hope you enjoy her life as much as I do!!

Love, Dawn

Lost & Found: An Ode to My Back Bone

Well, summer is nearly upon us and I am not sure how this story will begin....

1. Once upon a time... or
2. It was a dark and stormy night...

If I have to be honest both answers may apply!

After my new found back bone growing stronger each day, I can see that this might be the fairy tale summer I always dreamed of...

Unfortunately for my kids, with my new found back bone, their summer may have a foreboding sense of ..."It was a dark and stormy night..."

In my attempt to curb my frustrations, I have chosen to use humor/satire to try and laugh some of this off... It is a work in progress though!

I have drawn great inspiration from 2 very influential men in my life... Martin Luther and Stephen Colbert!

These men had quite creative ways of making their thoughts known!

1. Nail the message to the door
2. The ON NOTICE board!

So hear is my rough draft. I will have to pray and soften the rough edges BEFORE I deliver the message to the kids, but for now I am just going to deal with the RAW emotions. I trust that God will give me the family friendly version when the time is right.

Right now, I am just enjoying knowing that I DO have a back bone and it does work!

So here we go...

ON NOTICE:

To my dear, sweet, precious children:

I hope you will always know that my LOVE for you is unconditional...but my PATIENCE is not. So in the hopes that we can have a great summer together, I am putting a few ground rules in place.

I am your MOTHER and I love you more than words can say. I am NOT merely a "female parental unit" as you so sweetly informed me recently. But if you prefer a "female parental unit" as opposed to your mother, I have made a call to the military boarding school in Houston and they have two openings for the fall. Sergeant Kimberly Scott will be happy to be your "Female parental unit. "

You should thank your grandma. She felt I was being a bit extreme when the phone call from the military school came through. I had to stop and admit, I was bit surprised myself that I went so far as to make the phone call! So if a "female parental unit" is what you desire, I can make that happen with just a short phone call and a student loan for you both. I aim to please!


But should you decide to stay with your mother this summer, there will be some significant changes.

You are far too intelligent and gifted to wile-away-the-hours this summer.



We are blessed to be a blessing to others! So this summer, since we were unable to send you on the foreign mission trip you so desired, we signed you up for home missions instead. I know you will be pleased. We have made arrangements with some people from Thailand and/or China to send us some equipment that will make your home missions work be the best experience it can possibly be for you. These people have worked hard to provide you with the best tools available for home missions work. I know you will be thankful for their sacrifice on your behalf. You are so very sensitive and understanding that way.

I am so looking forward to the many things we can do together this summer! I was thinking that maybe we could celebrate the missions work you will be doing by trying different recipes over the summer from various countries... maybe some from Mexico, Italy, and even Mongolia!

By the way, yesterday when you told me to "screw dinner" and that you were going to bed, it made me realize that you were struggling with some grammar issues. But since it is so close to summer, we will just save that for the fall. But I do promise that I will help you with your grammar because I would hate for you to be embarrassed in public by the misuse of language. English is difficult, but I have full confidence in your ability to over come this deficit! You sure make your mom proud!

My dear children, since we are on the topic of dinner, I wanted to let you know that I will be working with some doctors in the medical mission field this summer. My availability to make home cooked meals, as I did last night, will not happen often. But I assure you, I will take some of the support money you receive for your missions work and be sure and fill the freezer with meals you can fix without my assistance.



I know you had big dreams this summer about studying various modes of transportation, but I am proud that you are setting your own wishes aside to serve others in home missions. It is possible that come fall time, as we work on your grammar skills, that we might reconsider your desire to study modes of transportation again. There is just so much to do and so little time! Besides, we should be mindful of our environmental challenges in the world today and all the struggles that are going on overseas concerning transportation. Maybe we should remember those who are effected with a moment of silence.

My dear, precious children, I hope you know that your summer-of-service will be greatly rewarded! You will be very satisfied with the pride that comes with learning a good work-ethic. Since the study of transportation may be delayed, I wanted to let you know that our friends from Thailand and China have sent a temporary gift to tide you over until fall. I hope that you will remember to send them a thank-you card. They do so much, with so little in return, to insure your happiness.

I am forever BLESSED to be your MOTHER.
I love you all so very much!

Love, Mom
pre-Summer 2008