Love Letter #1: To the Ones Who Started It All

Welcome to the Love Letters! This special section of the blog is where I will be writing personalized letters of love and gratitude to people who have had an impact on my life, both in the past and in the future.
Love Letter 2 – To the Teenager
Love Letter 3 – To the New Highschool Graduate

To my mom, who was the first person I ever took a picture of.

The one who gets up every morning to make breakfast twice or even three times. Once for Dad and once, sometimes twice for the kids.

You have worked a 24/7 mom job for the past 21 years, and you’re still doing it. (You will probably be doing it hardcore for the next 11 years or so, but you will never stop doing an amazing mom job) You woke up every day and made the commitment to give us your time and effort to teach us at home. This is a huge commitment, and sometimes we may act like we take it for granted. But I want you to know that it’s the best and most wonderful gift you could have given us.

You took the time to curl my hair on Sunday mornings, and taught me the importance of taking care of myself. You taught me that sometimes beauty is pain, and sometimes it means looking silly.

I will always remember sitting on the front porch with you singing “It’s a Beautiful Day”, or any of the other songs you made up on the spot. My love of singing has come from you. I remember singing the “Daddy Come Home” song as we waited for Dad to come home from a long day at work. You taught us to look forward to that time of the day. I remember you going to the window with us, holding whichever one of the younger siblings were too little to see over the window as we waved goodbye to Dad every morning.

You saw the qualities in a young man that showed you that Heaven would be an easier destination with him by your side.

To my dad, who gets up every morning to go to work doing manual labor, simply because he loves us. The one from whom I inherited my love of photography. The one who has wrestled with each and everyone of his children, even when you were tired from a long day. This is something I will always remember doing with you. I will also never forget the rush to wave at you as you drove away to work each morning while we were little. And then once you came home from work and started up the stairs, how we rushed to lay down on the couch and pretend we were asleep. Muffling our giggles when you pretended not to see us as you sat down on top of us and commented on how comfortable the couch was that particular evening. Then as we squirmed underneath you, you would jump up in surprise as though you never knew we were there. And sometimes you even let us switch roles and we jumped on you while pretending not to see you.

You colored with me, and had tickle fights with me under the covers.

But most importantly, you taught me how to lick a beater correctly.

You taught me how to play basketball and drove us to practice every morning, no matter how early. You took on the commitment to coach every one of your kids who decided to play basketball, so you could spend more time with us. And this really means a lot. You taught me that family comes first, and family means being together. It means being interested in what other members of the family are doing, and dropping whatever you could to be a part of what was going on.

You met a young woman who stuck with you and decided that you had found a good thing.

Today is the day that most call the silver anniversary. It’s the day that started the beginning of our family.

Together, you have battled the wars life threw at you.

Thank you both for pushing me to do things I didn’t want to do. Thank you for forcing me to make phone calls, even when I cried. 😉 Thank you for helping me through the times when I didn’t want to go on. Thank you for being the godly parents I can look up to as an example and model. You both showed me how to fight for the right things through the good times and the bad times. You have both done your utmost to protect us from evil influences, and to train us to discern between the good and bad. You have given us every opportunity to know our God and Creator, and the gifts He has given us. And I definitely count you two as one of the best gifts He has given me.

I love you, Dad and Mom. Happy Anniversary.

-From your oldest