*(edited to add: This was specifically for my Mother In Law Sue, and my Aunt Linda...)
When you teach a baby to walk, you start by just helping them stand on their feet to get their legs stronger.  Then you applaud every time they are able to stand on their own.  When they fall down and cry, you scoop them up with hugs and kisses and encourage them to try again.  You begin holding their hands in yours while standing over them and allowing them to walk on their own feet with your total support – they don’t fall because you are holding them up.  It’s great fun for babies but back breaking work for you.  After a while, they graduate to walking while firmly grasping just one of your hands. Sometimes they fall and usually you are as surprised as they are.  You pick them up and hold them and then help them start over.  Before you know it really, they are off on their own feet, no longer making you stand above them bent over and shuffling – instead you are off on the sides just watching.  They fall a lot.  Sometime they are just standing there not even moving when they fall over.  The world is a tricky place.  Falling teaches babies about their bodies, about balance, about how to walk and how not to walk, how to fall and how to stop a fall, and how to get back up.  As a mom, this is the lesson that you want them to learn most, and it has nothing to do with actually walking, but everything to do with life.

The hardest part is that you can’t teach them this by telling them about it; they only learn it by doing the painful work of falling down and getting back up again.  Sometimes you get lucky and your child does a lot of observing before they walk, and then they seem to fall less.  Sometimes you have to watch the excruciating progress of a child who doesn’t just fall, but crashes spectacularly every time and has to stay down for awhile before they can get up again.

I’ve only been “mothering” for a short time, and when I look at  my children and recognize how wonderful they are, I know that it’s because while I’ve been learning to walk in the shoes of a mom, you’ve been holding my hands, applauding my efforts,  and picking  me up when I fall. 

Thank you seems so inadequate and I wanted to truly honor your devotion.  I hope the following gift lets you know how much I love you… I made a donation to the Heiffer International – a program that doesn’t just feed children and families but gives families the support they need to feed their own children.  Thru Heifer International , an order of baby chicks  as well as  a “share” of another livestock animal was purchased in your honor for a mom in a poverty stricken country -   a mom who has not worried about how often her baby falls down but about whether or not her baby will live beyond infancy - has just been given the means to support herself and her children, all because you gave ME the guidance to support MY children.  Thank you from me, my kids, and on behalf of my own mom who can’t be here now but surely is shining her ‘mom’ love down for all of us…

I love you;
D