What's a Mother to Do?
~A Daughter's Tribute~

The motherhood of
my own mother served
as a channel of
supernatural grace for me,
as I grew in her care.
Her faithfulness
to motherhood
provided fertile ground,
as the truths of life
began to form in me
as a young child.
Mom was blessed with
seven pregnancies in
ten years.





My earliest awareness of her motherhood, took place when
I was four years old, as we waited for 'baby number three'
to be born. Nine months seems like forever
for a little four-year old sister to have to wait!
In my world, at that age, EVERYTHING was about babies.
I had a baby doll that I fed on a regular basis,
in between my naps, of course.
My grandmother was watching my brother and me
until Mom returned from the hospital.
Then the day finally arrived! Mom walked in the door.
I remember the expression on her face,
and even the hairstyle she had at the time.
I asked her in my four-year old excited tone,
"Where's the baby?"
Mom looked down at me,
and in a very somber gentle tone, said,
"Our baby is in heaven."
I was then rushed out of the room
by my grandmother, and was very puzzled.
My beautiful eight-pound baby sister
aspirated amniotic fluid in utero,
and died forty minutes after she was born.
Our Baby Mary Lorianne was buried in my Christening gown.

As I reflect back, it has occured to me that
my mother and father buried Lorianne deep within God's will.
This was the beginning of the truths of life for me.
God gave us Lorianne and God called her home.
That was all I knew.
I started to wonder about heaven in big ways.
For me, at that time,
heaven was a place full of babies.
That was all I knew.
So, my love for babies began to flow
into my love for heaven,
which I knew little about.
It must be a great place with all those babies there~
a fair deduction for a four-year old.
My mother suffered a miscarriage after Lorianne passed away.
But then, Mom had three babies,
each of them fifteen months apart.
I had all the babies I could hope for at that age!
This all began when I was around six years old.
There was a time when I remember
the three of them being in diapers,
all at the same time!
Mom helped me feel as though I was
second mother-in-command, as I assisted.

In natural ways, my parents were open to life and
received God's plan, even when that plan
lead them to the cross of loss.
My father especially directed me to pray
whenever the outcomes were unknown.
After three boys were born,
to include my older brother,
I felt as though a sister
was greatly needed in my life.
Dad encouraged me to storm heaven!
So I prayed really hard,
for what seemed to be forever!
I was in third grade when
baby sister Laura Rose was born!
We are nine years apart and
she is still as precious to us today
as the day she was born.
Dad made it clear to me that
God answered my prayers.
Me?
God heard me in that place
full of babies?
What an awesome God!
Dad taught me to play guitar
when I was eleven.
He helped me put my story
of the little miracle in my little life
into a song of prayer.

And so, we are a people of life,
when we cooperate with Him
as He forms life around our love.
As children grow in that openness
~ even little four year olds~
God's love is revealed in simple ways.
I am now the mother of seven,
six sons and a baby daughter.
The gift of life all began for me
when I was four years old,
under the care of parents
who could't wait to know me,
even before I was born!