The Ritzes 3.0

Dear Sandy,
Happy Mother’s Day!  Thank you for welcoming me into your family and into your heart when I became your daughter-in-law 14 years ago.  I once read about the mother/daughter-in-law relationship that, “Over time, wise women will come to value and appreciate the role of each other in the life of the man they both love.”  I hope we are on our way to that place.  It hasn’t always been easy.  I know that I am not always the easiest person to get to know.  I can be quiet and withdrawn at times and withhold things that others might readily share.  I already had a strong support system in my life when I met you and maybe I haven’t depended on you as much as other young women would have.  I don’t know if up to this point we have had the kind of relationship that you hoped to have with a daughter-in-law or not.  I do know that divorcing your son is not a desire or option in my life and never will be so, Lord-willing, we have many more years to figure all this out!  

Thank you for raising your son, my husband.  Thank you for your devotion to him over the years and your commitment to see him succeed and be happy.  He is the love of my life.  I am his wife, the one he has chosen to bring into this family, to spend the rest of our lives together.  I know that our life will be a journey and that it hasn’t always been (and won’t always be) easy, but I want you to know how much I love your son and how “worth it” it is for me to work hard to make our relationship a blessing to each other and to those around us.  You didn’t give up on him along the way, and I want you to know that I never will either.  I will fulfill my vows and continue meaning everything I said to him on our wedding day, and then some.

Life in Christian ministry is exciting and challenging, rewarding and draining.  I know that this may not be what you had in mind for him when you were raising him, but you have taken pride in his decision to follow after God and walk this path and that is a beautiful thing.  It would give us no greater joy than to share more of this part of our lives with you, but we will never force that.  If you ever want us (or me personally) to pray with you or for you, or have questions or thoughts about the Bible or Christian life that you want to share with us, please don’t hesitate.  Why should we share this most deep and meaningful part of our lives with the world and not with our own family members?

Just in case I’ve never mentioned it, I want to say thanks for several ways that you have blessed me over the past 14 years:

1. You have made a point to get to know me.  You read my blog and my Facebook status updates and you always respond to my emails and voice mails.  You ask me questions and want to hear the answers.  You have done a much better job of this with me than I have done with you.  I have noticed.  Thank you.

2. You are very generous.  On Christmas at your house, I feel like the belle of the ball!  Seriously spoiled.  I don’t think you have ever visited our house that you haven’t called when you get close to town and ask if I need anything from the store.  There are many examples I could give, but when you and Jim were some of the first to sign up to financially support us when we became missionaries, that spoke volumes.  “Thank you” doesn’t say enough.

3. You do not harass me for my shortcomings or point them out unnecessarily.  I am not the perfect daughter-in-law.  No surprise there, I am sure.  I forget birthdays and anniversaries.  I sometimes hoard my family to myself and don’t share them with you as much as I could.  I don’t always strike up the most exciting conversations.  I know these things because I am self aware, but not because you point them out or make me feel guilty for them.  Thank you for that.

4. You will drop everything to help us if we need you.  I fondly remember the days we spent together taking care of Timmy and not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE foster children for a week while Jason was out of town!!!  We were the dynamic duo!  Just your presence there was what it took to make the week not just bearable but enjoyable.  Sometimes I wonder if you wish I needed you more.  I’m a pretty independent lady, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t treasure the knowledge that if/when I do need you, you would be there!  Thank you.

5. You do not criticize the way I do things.  I am not as good at keeping house as you are.  My baseboards are often cruddy and window sills are frequently lined with dust.  Yours aren’t. The bathrooms are rarely pristine and my kitchen cabinets are less than organized.  Yours are.  I do not always parent my son the way you would.  I throw away things that you would keep.  I misplace things or damage things that you have a system to keep track of and take care of.  There are many things that I do differently than you would do, I am sure.  I know this because I’ve gotten to know you and spent many hours in your home, but not because you make a big deal out of our differences.  You don’t.  Thank you for that.

I am publishing this letter to you on my blog rather than just printing it out and mailing it to you for two reasons: 1. To celebrate you publically, and 2. No one is perfect, but you have done a lot of things right in this whole mother/daughter-in-law relationship and I think other mothers-in-law would like to hear the things that have stood out to this daughter-in-law most over the past 14 years.  There is no manual you get at your son’s wedding telling you how to go about loving his new wife well, so we have to help each other out along the way.  

I love you and thought you should know (and so should the rest of the world).  HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!

Love,
Carla

I love my son.  I would love him even if I wasn't his mother.  I just think he is a fun kid... and a funny kid.  He regularly makes me laugh and he surprises me more than anyone else on the planet... just when I think I have him figured out, he shows me he is still growing and changing and learning new things.  Do you think that God gives us the delights of 10 and 11 year old boys so that when they are 12-17 year old boys we don't completely lose our minds when their rooms stink to high heaven, and they take uncalculated risks, and they make questionable friendships, and they want to get tattoos of weird things, and they learn how to drive and joke with their mothers about how fast they got the car up to the night before, and they fall in love with a girl and start acting funny, and they choose to play violent sports like football and hockey and lacrosse instead of tennis and golf?  I do.

Here are some of the things my Timmy has said and done lately... 
1. His screen saver on his school laptop is currently a painting of a primitive house with a sod roof. (Normally it is a Pokemon character or a picture of a dog or cat doing something cute/funny.)  If you ask him about his unique photo choice, he will tell you that he is learning about homesteaders in school and how they used what they could find on the land to build shelters and that "that's cool."
2. "Mom, what do you and Dad DO after I go to sleep anyway?!?"  (said upon his realization that we don't go to sleep for sometimes hours after he has gone to bed each night).
3. He waved to a stranger (to me anyway) as we walked down the street yesterday.  Apparently, the guy is a regular at the local coffee shop where Timmy bartered with the manager for free milkshakes and cookies in exchange for his lego collection (which he felt he had outgrown, sigh).
4. When we left a recent school field trip to the bowling alley, he held my hand and said, "That girl was really nice, Mom."  He was referring to a sweet young lady with mental retardation who came right up and introduced herself to him when he arrived and even though she ended up with the lowest score of the day and never seemed to really grasp the rules of the game, seemed to have a great time just being with people.  "Yes, she was nice."  I'm glad he noticed.  I am glad THAT was what he noticed.
5. "Do you think I'm old enough to go on a mission trip, Mom?"  Heaven help me!  I don't know if I am more excited that he is thinking about such a thing or that he still wants to hear what I think!?!?  
6. "Mom, for finals week, I think I want to make a batch of homemade ice cream and just give it away to the college students instead of making them pay for it."  
7. He walks the dogs almost everyday for fun and fancies himself quite the dog whisperer.  
8. Each morning we ask him how he slept the night before and he'll say things like, "Pretty good, I only got 9 hours of sleep though." or "I was up until like 9:50!" *yawn*
9. We went through the Dairy Queen drive through the other day for a quick surprise treat BEFORE lunch and he asked for a small blizzard.  I ordered him a MINI blizzard instead and he said, "Mom, I wanted a small!"  "Well," I said, "I guess we could just cancel our order and go straight home for lunch..."   Timmy immediately changed his tune:  "What was I thinking?! A mini will be just right.  Who would want a small before lunch anyway!?  Sheesh that would just be silly."
10. He regularly begs me to stand back-to-back with him or put my hands or feet up to his so we can determine if he has grown or if he has gotten any bigger than me in some way.  (His feet are bigger than mine and he's got about four inches to go before he looks me square in the eye.)

I don't want to forget these days of innocence and growth spurts and easy laughter and quick forgiveness and tween boy fun.  I want his smile and giggle and funny sayings to be burned into my memory.  This season will be gone before I know it and we'll be on to new and different things.  Each stage with Tim is an adventure, but I think that I'm going to look back at this particular part of the adventure as one of my favorites.  :)
Matthew 18:1-3 (ESV) - "At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, 'Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?' And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, 'Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"

Today I saw one of those cute printables on Pinterest.  You know the ones I'm talking about.  This one had a list of 21 questions to ask your kiddos.  I should have glanced at the questions before I started asking Tim, but I didn't.  As I made my way down the list, I realized every question had to do with ME... what he thought of me, his perceptions of me, etc.  Oh dear. 

Well, it certainly could have gone worse.  Some of his answers were actually very sweet and even encouraging.  Others were a bit too accurate, if you get my drift.  Here are the results:

1. What does your Mom say to you all the time?  "Do your chore sheet!" (I'd like to think I say it a little nicer than that... perhaps not?  hmmm.)
2. What makes your Mom happy? "Food."  (I'm working on that one, maybe by this time next year he will say something like, "the stairmaster.")
3. What makes your Mom sad? "When I do bad things."  (Awww, I guess it does make me sad, but I wish he would have said something like "people living in poverty" or "seeing people hurting" or something more big picture and less day-to-day.  C'est la vie.  I suppose I don't show him what saddens me much of the time... I'll have to ponder that one.)
4. What makes your Mom laugh?  "Funny TV shows."  (That's a gimme.)
5. What did your Mom like to do when she was a kid?  "Ummm, cheerleading, I think?"  (Did I ever!!!  I also liked riding my bike around the block in our trailer park, pretending it was a horse... ahhh, the weird old days.)
6. How old is your Mom?  "You are 37, right?"  (Right.)
7. How tall is your Mom?  "Five Foot Four."  (Wrong.)
8. What is your Mom's favorite thing to do? "Hang out with people." (I like this one.)
9. What does your Mom do when you aren't around? "Go on a date with Dad."  (Yup!  I'd like to think that this answer means we are communicating volumes to our son about the joy of marriage and our commitment to each other... in actuality, who knows what he's thinking!)
10. If your Mom was famous, what would it be for?  "I have no idea on this one."  (Thanks for the vote of confidence, Son.)  ;)
11. What is your Mom really good at?  "Writing."  (Awww.  Thanks!)
12. What is your Mom NOT good at? "Jumping."  (Okay, weird answer, but okay.)
13. What does your Mom do for work?  "Nothing now."  (Correct-a-mundo!  Unless you count laundry, cooking, vacuuming, dishes... but what almost-11-year-old boy counts those things?  The DNC Advisor didn't even think that those things were work for Ann Romney and she had FIVE sons!)
14. What is your Mom's favorite food? "Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory."  (Krazy Kraig's Carrot Cake Cheesecake to be exact, and their Santa Fe Chicken Salad is equally divine... well,  maybe not equally.)
15. What are you most proud of your Mom for? "That she is a good Mom." (I'm not makin this stuff up, folks!  Can someone hand me a tissue?)
16. If your Mom was a cartoon character which one would she be? "Umm, that smart girl from Scooby Doo.  Velma?"  (Well, its no Wonder Woman, but it could have been worse, I do wear glasses.)
17. What do you do with your Mom? "We watch movies... eat... go places... I don't know!"  (Hmmm, time to add a bit of variety to the routine, perhaps.)
18. How are you and your Mom the same? "We both have blonde hair."  (True enough.)
19. How are you and your Mom different? "Um, I'm a boy and she's a girl." (Thank you, Captain Obvious!  I thought about pressing him for a different answer on this one, but I suppose that gender is an important distinction.)
20. How do you know your Mom loves you? "You tell me so." (And I always will.)
21. Where is your Mom's favorite place to go?  "France."  "Tim, I've never been to France."  "Oh.  Then Disney World!"  (Well, definitely in my top five anyway!)

Ask a kid in your life these questions and see what you find out!  You never know unless you ask.  

Now I think I will sit down and answer the same questions about my Mom and send my response to her in her Mother's Day card.  :)  I wonder how tall she is these days...