Mom K

Last night as I blogged, I was thinking that today I would blog about my other MOM - Mom Klassen. You see, today is her birthday. She turns 78 today. I don't think that Mom realizes how much she means to us. To her biological kids, as well as to us kids who have become hers through marriage. The thing I love is that she doesn't classify us - we are just all her kids.

I have known Mom K. since I started dating Alvin when we were 16. So, a little math makes that 35 years this fall!! From the start, I felt like Mom became my friend. She welcomed me into her heart. There were many things Mom taught me through her quiet ways. I also had a chance to get to know the things she didn't talk much about - the places in her heart that meant alot to her.

Mom had a hard childhood. Mom, was an only child. Her father was murdered during the war times. Omi, mom's mom, raised her as a single mom, and together with Omi's sister and her children, they became a bigger family. Omi's sister's husband was also taken and killed. That in itself is something no mom and child should ever have to live through, but Mom did. She has told us the stories of when she was so sick with typhoid, and with TB... often to the brink of death, but obviously God had much bigger and greater purpose for Mom. She is a survivor!

The story of how her and Dad met - is very cute. Dad wrote it down for us in his story that he wrote before he passed away. While Mom and Dad were never really big on "demonstrative expressions of love in public" - there was never a doubt that Mom and Dad were in love, and love us all. That we know without a doubt.

I have to say however that the biggest gift that we (Alvin and I and our kids) had was when in 1997, Mom and Dad lived with us for a few months, while they built their house right through the bush from us. Just a hop skip and a jump. That is a time of life that I will always cherish, as I got to know mom and dad in a deeper more intimate way. You see, that was the year after my Mom died, and the year that my Dad died. Mom and Dad K. became the only parents I had left.

It was so nice to hear them at the door - calling to see if we were home? I saw how they did everything together. Cutting wood? Mom could certainly hold her own!!
Mom crocheted stars for christmas ornaments - Dad helped pin them on a board to starch them. They were "all for one and one for all" mentality. They loved the country. They loved looking out the back window and seeing the wildlife, and well, the cows too. They loved the gas fireplace and the garage - both "luxuries" that they never had in the 40+ years of living in NK. You never found mom idle, and when she did stop, she fell asleep!! (something Alvin also does - hmmm where did that come from!)

When Dad went "home" to be with the Lord, Mom's heart broken. She had poured all her energy into helping to care for him in the last 6 weeks of his life. Her broken heart is still not mended. I know that. The tears are still there, and she has realized that it doesn't "get easier after a year" as people all told her it would.
I saw Mom's heart break even more last July, when our little Jay Benjamin Klassen was born silently. Jay is Mom's first great grandchild.

We have watched mom - adapt to doing things on her own. Things that she never had to do when Dad was alive. We have watched mom move from her country life, into city life once again. That was so hard for us too. We have watched mom continue to care for others while at the same time feeling her own brokenness. We have joked with mom, and love to see her laugh. We have visited with her, although not nearly enough! We continue to be amazed by her baking and cooking! There is nothing that she can't do. I know that my kids go to her with tricky sewing/fixing situations too.

This last month has been hard - as her body has weakened, and her kidneys for some reason are failing. We continue to see a strong reliance on the Lord - even amidst all the unknown of the current situation. Mom continues to show us her faith, even amidst adversity. And, she continues to laugh when we joke with her. She is just plain sweet and lovable.

Today, it is her birthday. She is 78. She also celebrates in the hospital - instead of celebrating at our place. Today is a day that we will likley all take turns to visit her at the hospital - to give her a hug and a happy birthday. Today is a chance for me to stand back and thank God for giving her to me as a second mom.
God, thank you for our Mom - only you Lord, know her future. We continue to entrust her to you God.

Yesterday, I sat with mom for a while, just her and I, in the tv room of St. B.
It was a good time - and we had a good chat. On Friday, before she left her condo, for her appoointments, which then landed her in hospital again, Mom took my hand and as I prayed, we were reminded again, that "ONLY GOD KNOWS" but He will be our strength.

Seems I have said that alot lately.... "God, only You know. We don't understand. We know that your ways are not always our ways, but God, help us to trust - through the dark valleys that we are walking through."

Yesterday, as I made my way down from the 5th floor where Mom was, I stopped on the Labor and Delivery Floor. Yesterday was the first time I returned to this ward since the day we left with Josh and Leah. While I have returned "emotionally and mentally" to the hospital, and journalled about it- I had not yet returned to the hospital physically and really, I didn't think I would again until we were there for our next little grandbaby to arrive. But in my inner being, I just had to. So I stopped and looked at the glass waiting area on the L&D side. The thoughts of that day overwhelmed me. Then I went through the doors, down the hall that we walked out of on July 25th - and I walked to the nursing station and chatted with them. They asked how the kids were doing... they didn't know me - they were different nurses than Josh and Leah had, yet they asked how Leah and Josh were doing now. And then I walked out of there - and found myself choking back the tears as I took the remaining steps to the main floor.

St. Boniface hospital. My daughter Ashley was born there. My first grandson Jay Benjamin was born silently there. And now Mom is there, waiting on a biopsy, and results and prognosis and plan - and Jesus is there with her too.... walking her and also us, through all of this.

Lord, thank you for your love - even when we feel like you are so far from us - we know you are here. Thank you for Mom - for her birthday. Thank you for her life and the legacy of faith she has and is passing down to us and our children. Thank you God for giving her a strong body and mind, even though she has had so much sickness as a young girl. Thank you Lord, for the doctors that you have given to her. We pray for wisdom for them as they try to figure out what the cause of her kidney failure is. And Lord, for this special day - her birthday - we give you thanks for her life and ask that we continue to entrust her life to you. Lord bless her today, in a special way - and as her kids, as we all come and see her - Lord, may we continue to give thanks for Mom, and Grandma.