Aspirations

When I grow up, I want to be more like my daughter!

Thirty years ago, I became a mother. (Thirty years ago, I became a mother?!!)

Yes, my firstborn is thirty years old this week...Kristin, the dear little red-haired girl who came to grace the world and our lives with her beauty.

Today, Kristin is a loving wife to Brian and mother to four delightful children with another due to arrive in a few weeks. And I do want to be more like her!

Kristin is patient.

She is patient with her children, so sensitive to their needs and different personalities. This amazes me. Learning patience was a process in my own years of mothering, but Kristin seems to have had this gift from the start.

Kristin is decisive.

She and I co-edited our local homeschool newsletter for years. While I tended to hem-and-haw over so many little things (what style font, what size font, where to put this, on and on), she was able to look at the situation and make a quick decision. And this trait carries over to all the areas of her life.

Kristin is organized.

Maybe you have to be organized to run a household of young children, but Kristin had that tendency as a child. Once morning, I saw a book lying in the middle of her bedroom floor. When I asked her why it was there, she explained that she had thrown it there as a visual reminder of something she had thought of after she had gone to bed for the night!

If you nose around her blog, you'll see lots of proof of her organizational gifts. Click here for starters. ("Work a half a day ahead" she says? Huh? Are we even related?! ~wink~)

Kristin is thrifty.
She blesses her family with her ability to live frugally "without feeling deprived." (Her dad is impressed with this.) Check out her summer Thrifty Thursday blog series for some of her tips.

Kristin is giving.

As a little girl, she sprang into action whenever anyone was sick, waiting on them hand and foot. As a teenager, she doted on baby sister Kati. She was a lifesaver to me when I had a serious illness, followed by a difficult pregnancy. She continues to give of herself when others are in need, because she has a giving heart.

I am so grateful that Kristin is who she is, despite her all-too-human mother who was learning on the job.

I look at her...and I see His grace.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Happy Birthday, Kristin!