The Woman Who Loves Me.

Ok. Seriously?!
I need to do an entire monthly recap,
but I only have a sec.

And it seems I only have “just have a sec” nowadays. (sigh)
But, who the heck cares.
We’re happy
and ALIVE,
so I am good with that.

But, I just needed to make time to write this down
so I would never forget it.

My grandmother passed away this past week
and we were all very saddened by it.
Not because we don’t have the hope of seeing her again,
but because she was so very dear to us all.

{The two Hazels.}

However, it is hard to be sad when all you can think of
is her and her husband of 69 1/2 years
dancing together on streets made of gold.

She lived a full life, but we will miss her.

The disappointing part was that
she had wanted to meet Judah so badly,
and we never got the chance to make that happen.

By the time we got home and got settled
she had become just a shadow of who she was.
Without being able to communicate and sleeping most of the day,
she just wasn’t the Mymommy we knew anymore.
She was tired and ready for eternity.

The special part of this story though
is that one of the MOST PRECIOUS moments
I have had with my new son,
or arguably ever will have,
happened the day of her funeral.

I am so happy to have had these two moments
coincide on the same day.
It connects Mymommy and Judah in a way,
even though they never met.

The man that pastors the church my grandmother attended
had been a missionary in Korea
and he just so happens to speak fluent Mandarin.

He was officiating her funeral
and graciously took a few moments to speak with Judah in Mandarin.

After talking with him for awhile
he looked at me and said,
“He is still having a hard time referring to you as Mama.
He still refers to his foster mother as his Mama.”

This only stung a little bit.
I understand.
He has only been with me for 3 months.
He was with his foster mom for 3 years.
I am prepared for that.
I know I will have to put more time in
for me to be elevated to that status,
and rightly so-in my book.

But knowing how we have been doing these past months,
and seeing him do so well and receive the love we have been giving him,
it did cause me to wonder…
“What does he call me?”

This former missionary and pastor for my Grandmother
looked up at me and said,
“He calls you, The Woman Who Loves Me.”

Needless to say,
I melted into a puddle on the floor.
So, so grateful for that gift.
And I looked back to her Pastor and said,
“I’ll take that over Mama any.day.”

Yep. He can call me that forever.

It brought even more sweetness to a day
already filled with so many treasured memories
as we honored my precious Mymommy.

one grateful mama,