Another Birthday in Glory

Yesterday was Mom's birthday.  After a quick lunch at McDonald's, we headed to the grave site to put some flowers on Mom's headstone.

Before we left McDonald's we asked Addie if she had to go potty.

"No. I went at church."

And then came the hard part of explaining to Addie what we were doing.

We have always told her that Grandma Ana is in heaven with Jesus.  So we had to say that we were going to the place where we remember Grandma Ana. 

"Are we going to heaven?"

"Not today.  We are going to the place that helps us to remember Grandma Ana."

"Will we see Jesus there?"

You can only imagine the looks that Brian and I exchanged with each other as we tried to come up with truthful answers that a 3 year old could understand. 

At the site, Addie wanted to hold Grandma Ana's flowers.  We looked for her stone and finally found it.

And then Addie began crossing her legs, "I have to go potty really bad!"

Didn't we just have this conversation 10 minutes ago?

Brian took her (ran her) to the car and hid her so she could do what she needed to do.

Then they returned.

We put the flowers on the stone.  "Happy birthday, Mom," was all I could say as I patted her stone before getting choked up.

Brian hugged me and prayed a prayer of thanks for Mama's life and influence. There were tears from both of us.

Then he tried to explain to Addie that this was where Grandma Ana's body was, but her heart and the part of her that made her talk and laugh was in heaven with Jesus.

Addie asked if she could have one of the flowers.

Brian told her to ask the right way for a flower.

She became very shy and said, "Grandma Ana, may I have a flower, please?"  Brian said that Mama would have wanted Addie to have the best flower... he was right.  She always wanted us to have the best..

She picked a flower and then said, "Thank you, Grandma Ana."

Then we headed home.

Lord, thank you for my mother and the influence she had on my life.  Thank you for the example of motherhood that I had the privilege of watching and learning from.  Thank you that although she is gone, her legacy lives on.  Help me to be the kind of mother to my children that she was to us.

Happy birthday, Mom!