Dear Mom

 Dear Mom, 

I've been thinking about you so much this week. Today you would be 77 and I've been looking forward to this day for awhile now. Guess what? We finished your book!

I've had some tearful days this week, Mom, wishing that you were here to see it. 

I'll always wish we would have helped you finish your project while you were still here. I guess that's just a reminder that we don't have an unlimited time with the people we love. It's so easy to put things off and not get them done! I know, in the light of eternity, a book about the history of our church is not really that important. I just wanted you to know that we did it; it's here, and how I wish I could show it to you. I'm pretty sure you would love it. 

Rach was the one who got serious about it, Mom. She stuck to the project for the past two years and has spent hours and hours getting it done. You can imagine how many times we threatened to forget the whole idea or to just type up the stories we had and staple them together and call it good. If it had been left up to me, we still wouldn't be done.

I'm not sure exactly what you had in mind when you wanted to write down the history of Shady Lawn, Mom. It was hard to decide how to do it. How do you know what all to include? How do you make sure you don't leave out important information? What is the best format to use? And if we did get it written, how do we go about getting a book printed? You weren't here to answer any of those questions, so we hashed them back and forth and around and around. This is what we finally came up with.

We ended up going with kind of a scrapbook look, taking the stories you had already gathered of the people who first moved into the area and adding several more. There are so many things that could have been included from 65 years of church history and it was so hard to decide where to start and stop. We talked about Vacation Bible School, The Quilting, how the church building has evolved over the years, and included a bit of a timeline with important dates of interest. We barely touched the surface, really. I think one of your favorite touches would probably be your granddaughter's contributions of artwork scattered throughout the pages. Rach ended up setting up the whole book herself and, after checking out every different self publishing option we could find online, she bravely uploaded her files and printed a book!

It's not perfect by any means, Mom, but I know you wouldn't be concerned about perfection. We captured the stories and the vision of those early years and preserved the memories, and I think that's really what you wanted to do. You were always so passionate about preserving history for the next generation. 

I have missed you so incredibly much this week, Mom. Holding the book in my hands and reading the stories again has brought wave after wave of nostalgia and sadness. But I'm also thankful. Reading these stories makes me realize again how much my life has been impacted by parents who were invested in caring about people. Moving to a tiny little church, hundreds of miles from family and everything familiar, couldn't have been easy. You didn't have to live where there were dirt roads and no telephone in your house and attend a church so tiny that any given service found you with multiple responsibilities. But I am forever grateful you did. 

You were human, just like everyone else, Mom. You made mistakes and had your flaws but when it came to modeling a love for Jesus and your community, you did it well. Thank you. 

Love, Bethany 

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To see a short video by my 11 year old about These Stones, and to find information about ordering a copy, go here. If you are reading on your phone, you may need to scroll to the bottom and click 'view web version' in order to access the video. In the web version of my blog, I will now have a button on the right side called These Stones, where you can access that information any time.