Bobby Jack Outlaw II

Hey boys look how well your little brother Johnathan did in school this year.

Bluebonnet Award * Accelerated Reader * Recycling Star * UIL Reading * Book It *... Study Island Reading * Math Facts in a Flash * A/B Honor Roll * Commended Performance on Math and Reading TAKS Tests

Sarah also passed all her TAKS test and got Commended Performance on her Math one. I know yall are so proud of them both.

Today was Sarah's Prom.

We're doing things a little different for our Church Valentine Banquet this year. Instead of focusing on couples we're focusing more on "Love". For example...The Love of Jesus...The Love of a Husband/Wife...A Mother's Love...and so on. They chose me to speak on a Mother's Love and I'm honored because oh how I love my kids! I am going to speak on a Mother's love for her children but I also want to speak on accepting love from others if our own Mother never showed us the love we longed for...I know too well what that is like and I know we have others in our church (especially some of the youth) that longs for a Mothers love. Please ask Jesus to help me. I hope you boys know how much I love you and always have.

Love, Mama

My Notes...

Oh to tell of a Mother's love. Really something as special and as wonderful as that can't be put into simple words but I'm going to try.

A Mom falls in love with her child long before that child is born. As little girls we play with our baby dolls and dream of the day when we will become Mommies. Then years later when we do become Mom's we know our hearts no longer belong to us...they now belong to the sweet baby that we have finally been blessed with. You know the one I'm meaning...the little one that cries all night and doesn't let us get enough sleep. The one that spits up on us and stains all our clothes. The one that gives us those stinky diapers that no one else seems to know how to change except for Mama. The ones that melt our hearts will hugs and kisses and I love you Mommy. Yep you know what I mean. That perfect little girl or boy that we know is the most beautiful, the sweetest, the smartest, the best creation ever born. Yes that's my child! And for those of us that have be blessed with more than one...well...we know they too are the most beautiful, the sweetest, the smartest, the best creation ever born.

We watch them grow up and we pray for them that they will be all they were meant to be and that the Lord will always put his blessings on them. We want only the best for them because hey...that's my child and my child deserves the best.

We are proud of them for their great accomplishments as there are many. We cry over their heartaches probably as much or more than they do even though they might not realize it. We keep right on loving them when they do wrong...believe it or not even though they are perfect...they do things wrong sometimes. And yes...even when they break our hearts we keep right on loving them and if possible we love them even more because that's what Mama's do.

Also for those of us like myself that have been blessed with an adopted child...let me be the first to tell you that the love for that child is no different than the love for the ones we give birth to. They are all "children of the heart"...they just got to us by coming a different route. I have a cousin that told me after we adopted Johnathan that "all children were meant to be "somebodies child" and it's not always the one that gave birth to them". I have to agree with her because I know I love Johnathan every bit as much as I love his brothers and sisters and he is just as much mine...he was meant to be mine and I'm so thankful for that.

There is absolutely nothing that can stop a Mother's love for her children...not even Heaven. This I know because I have three sons in Heaven and I still love them as much and they are still just as much a part of my life as my other kids are...they just can't be seen is the only difference. Plain and simple a Mother's love will last throughout Eternity...I know it will.

I have one more thing I want to share and then I'll stop. There may be those here that have never felt the kind of love I'm talking about from their Mom's. You may long for that kind of love and feel like you will never be blessed with knowing what it's like. Let me say I was one of those that wasn't blessed with the kind of love my heart longed for from my Mom. Oh I know she loved me the best she knew how...but I never felt that special kind of love I've talked about. I don't remember her ever even telling me she loved me. I remember asking her one time as a little girl if she loved me and she said yes...but I never heard the words I longed to hear and she was never able to show me that kind of love. I'm not telling you this to make her look or sound bad and surely not to make anyone feel sorry for me. I just want you to know if you do feel like this...I understand what that's like. But let me add...over the years after I got in church the Lord brought many Mother figures into my life that did and still do love me with a Mothers love. All I had to do was open my heart and eyes to see it and accept it. Jesus never meant for us to be without that kind of love and for those that have been...he will bless you with "Other Mom's" that will love you the way you long to be loved. I believe if you are one I may be talking to...if you'll only take the time to look inside your heart and mind you'll see the face of one of those "Other Mom's" that does and has loved you with a Mothers love. I pray you'll open your heart to them and let them love you and let Jesus bless you in a way you've never known before.

Mama
Oh my sweet boys I'd give anything to have you here with me. Not one birthday have I got to spend with you and now here you are already 25 years old. It breaks my heart to think of all I've missed out on with you. Please know Mama loves you and if I could have made things be different I would have.

Love you forever, Mama