A Letter to the Mothers in my Life

I never, ever tell people how much they mean to me as often as I think it, or as often they deserve. It’s too much for a photo caption, and too much for a card. So this is a letter of thanks to all the mothers in my life.

First and foremost, to my mom. Mommy, thank you for giving me life. Not just for giving birth to me, but for giving me life. You worked so incredibly hard as a teacher in order to help provide for us and taught us what it’s like to have a passion and be in service to others. You provided me with siblings to love and play with. You provided a home out in the country, a child’s dream, with pets and chores and lots of room to play. You provided a loving, caring family and a stable marriage that allowed me to grow up never fearing if my family would fall apart, and taught me what a strong, Christian marriage looks like, so that I can now live that out in my own marriage. You took us to church, every Sunday, without fail, even when the drive was long and we were little and squirmy. You taught me what it means to serve God with my entire life and to live out the forgiven life I received when you had me baptized at just days old. You shared with us the financial struggles of sending us to Christian schools, yet rather than letting us worry about our future, you helped show us the ways in which God was blessing us and taking care of us. That is a skill I carry through to this day. You taught me how to enjoy life, how to laugh and have fun. You taught me the meaning of responsibility and rules, never giving in to my whining or my ability to “forget” to do my chores. You didn’t seek to be my friend, rather guiding me as a mother should. You understood my need for independence you let me be myself and move out and grow up. I was blessed to grow up with you as my mom.

And the blessings still keep coming. You forgive me when I am busy and don’t call. You understand when our short visits are filled with other responsibilities. You pray for us and brag about us and update us with what’s going on at home. You show you care by saving those fun magazines and cool stickers for my Kindergarteners, who you love as much as I do, even without meeting them. You have become a friend, someone who I can talk to more and more on a peer level, as we discuss classroom woes and parenting philosophies and faith questions. You inspire me with your new-found passion in serving in Guatemala, going out of your comfort zones in ways I don’t know that I could. You show constant love without discrimination, welcoming Nick into the family with open arms.

People always say you grow up to be like your mom. Every day I realize how much that is becoming true, and I am proud to say it. If I can raise kids like you raised the four of us, I will be a proud mom someday. If I can be a teacher as loving, dedicated, and creative as you were, I will count myself as blessed. If I can be a wife as committed and loving as you are, then Nick and I have a bright future ahead. Thank you for everything you do, you have done, and you will do, Mommy.

Secondly, to my mother-in-law, Cathy. Thank you for welcoming me into your family. You show me love in your thoughtful gifts and in your eagerness to help with anything we ask. You have endured the changes that come with a marriage in the family, being willing to be flexible as I invaded your home or took Nick to mine on holidays. You’ve welcomed me into your home, providing food to eat and a place to stay and someone to talk to, even the times when Nick wasn’t there. You’ve helped take care of me, letting me crash in your house on visits even when I ended up sick with the stomach flu or shingles. You’ve shown your love in so many ways, whether by making my favorite Red Velvet cake balls or hosting a bridal shower and rehearsal dinner in your home or taking me out for pedicures and girl time. In the short years I’ve known you, you have shown me how deeply you love those around you. You have become “mom” to so many more than just the children you gave birth to, simply because you are willing to love and care for others without restriction, providing a place to stay or food to eat to those who need it. You are a role model to me as you hold to your faith through rough times, and your constant prayers are a continued blessing to Nick and me. I thank you for raising Nick to be the wonderful, caring, Christian man he is, so that we can now build our own family based on the example that you have provided. Thank you, Cathy, for all that you do.

Also, to the grandmothers God gave me. I was blessed to live nearby both my grandmas, so I was raised by them and got to know them well. My Grandma Betty is now in heaven, and I miss her and the special times we all had as a family. My Grandma Mary continues to amaze me in her strength and joy as she continues to take care of the farm even after my grandpa passed away. I am thankful to both of them for their faith that kept them going through all the rough times. I am thankful to them for raising my parents in the church, loving Jesus, and serving others. I am thankful that they were around for the dance recitals, the birthdays, the graduations…I was so, so loved. I am thankful for the grandmothers I received in my marriage to Nick - two more Godly women who love us and spoil us beyond what we deserve.

I am thankful to my friends who have children, who show me just what a blessing being a mom can be. They show me that you can do it without looking like THAT cliché mom or talking about mom stuff all the time or being a Pinterest Super Mom. They show me that you can genuinely enjoy motherhood and that you don’t have to look like a mess or complain about food stains or sleeplessness all the time. They show me the wonderful impacts that a mother’s love can have not only on the child, but also on the mother and father. Thank you, especially to Adrionna and Heidi, because you have, probably unknowingly, helped me move from being completely terrified of the prospect motherhood to being excited about that day (someday in the distant future…don’t read too much into this) that I get to be a mother too.

I am thankful to all the wonderful women in my life who have or do provide motherly guidance and care. To my Aunt Tami, who gave us a key to her house so we could just crash any time after school in high school, knowing the drive home was too long. To my Aunt Nina, who I knew was always just a phone call away during college, and still lets us stay there on our trips home. To my dance teacher, Teresa, who taught me not just how to dance, but how to be kind and loving while being confident and graceful. To Mrs. Neipp, who taught me to play the piano, and also allowed my little 12-year-old self to babysit her children. To all my teachers growing up and to my fellow teachers now, who help provide that guidance because my mom is 2,000 miles away.

I am thankful for the parents of my students, who entrust their children to me for a short time each day. My kids know that they are just that, my “kids.” They know that I don’t have any children of my own at home, but I don’t need any, because I have 6 of them at work. And they know that I will do anything to protect them, just like their mom and dad would, because I have been given that gift of caring for them and loving them for a year, and boy, do I love those kids. I am thankful for all the lessons I have learned in my past two years of teaching that may someday help a little in my vocation as a mother to my own kids.

Thank you, God, for the rich blessings You have bestowed. You have given me much, much more than I deserve.

Mikaela

We Survived: April

Greetings!

April tulips at the Seminary

May is here! We are both very excited to finally be in the final stretch of this school year. Nick will finish up his last classes on May 19^th and my last day of school and Kindergarten graduation are on May 26^th. This is probably my favorite time of year – time to wrap things up, celebrate the fun we’ve had, and clean out and pack up. Now that we know our vicarage placement, I’m itching to clean out not only my classroom but our home as well. But I’m getting ahead of myself….here’s a little (or a lot, we’ll see) about how April went.

Honestly, we’re surprised we both survived April without either a nervous breakdown or illness of some sort. But here we are, on the other side of the madness, survivors who are now enjoying a very well-deserved weekend of rest, relaxation, and lots of catching up on sleep.

April contained two very big milestones that we have been anticipating since the beginning of the school year. The first was the half-marathon, the second was Call Day.

Celebrating with our post-race ice cream sandwiches

Let’s start out with the half-marathon – April 10^th. We approached it with a lot of nervousness, because it is such a huge event. But we knew that we were physically prepared – we ran 12 miles a few weeks before and survived. We did all the right things – we tapered (slowly cut down the miles we were running in the weeks leading up to the race), we ate healthy (cutting out all the junk food…that wasn’t easy), and mentally prepared. The day before, we had to go to a big expo to pick up our race packets that included our race bibs, shirts, and all the free goodies they give out. It was fun, and we bought ourselves some cool Go! St. Louis hats to wear for the race since we were anticipating rain. After getting home, we laid out all our race gear, carefully selecting clothing choices based on the weather, along with socks, shoes, energy gels, race bibs…all the essentials. I sort of obsess over the right choice of jacket, and I did until the morning of when we were getting out of the car, but it paid off! The race was at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, so we woke up early and drove downtown with plenty of time to spare. This race has thousands of participants, and roads were blocked off, so we didn’t want to risk anything. When we got there, we got to our starting spot, and waited and waited. Because they start runners off in waves, we didn’t get to start until about 10 minutes after the actual race start time. It was a fun race, with lots of supporters with silly signs standing on the side of the course. The starting line had a scenic view of the Arch and we got to run across the bridge to Illinois and back, and then down and around Anheuser Busch. There were water stations every few miles and even a chocolate station at one point. The only disappointing thing about the race was that when we signed up back in September, we had no idea what our pace would be, so we just signed up with a 10 minute per mile pace. However, this put us pretty far back in the corrals and as a result, we had to spend a lot of time and energy weaving and passing people, because we are really at closer to a 9 minute per mile pace. But now we know for future races! We both felt great the whole race (well, good enough to keep running. All my joints were in pretty bad pain for the last few miles), the weather cooperated, and we finished at the time of 2:04:59. We were hoping to finish in under 2 hours, but we knew it would be close, so now we have a goal for our next half-marathon. Our sweet friends Trevor and Hannah came out to cheer us on and took us out for lunch after the race. We were thankful that the rain held off until we were sitting inside at lunch! We really enjoyed the experience and we hope to run the Go! again next year! (The next day, we were also in pretty severe pain. 13.1 miles is a lot of pavement to pound! Next year, I’m taking the day after the half marathon off of work if I can!)

Anyway, that was one of our big goals for the year, and we are pretty proud of ourselves. However, it has been nice being able to relax a bit and not worry about getting in every workout over the last few weeks! We’ve filled up our weeks since the race with faculty meetings, voters meetings, vicarage workshops, seminars at the seminary, time with friends, seminary events, school events, and more.

One of my personal big events of the month was our school musical. I’ve sort of spearheaded this project the last two years, and it’s a very time-consuming, but very rewarding experience. The last few weeks leading up to it always bring about the extra time at school putting things together, the extra shopping trips for costumes and props, and the extra hours out of the classroom for rehearsals. But man is it totally worth it, on musical night, after the show, when all the parents and grandparents are coming up to you, telling you how amazing their children were, how much they enjoyed the show, and how excited they are for next year. Totally, totally worth it. It’s hands-down one of my favorite nights of the school year.

One of Nick’s big accomplishments of April was starting his practicum for his Pastor as Educator class. This involves spending three weeks in a classroom, teaching religion. He was assigned to a 5^th grade classroom at a nearby elementary school, and it’s been a lot of work for him. He’s been writing lesson plans every night and putting on his slacks and dress shirt and tie every morning. He’s come home with some fun stories (although let’s be honest, it’s hard for 5^th graders to compete with Kindergarteners in the story category), and has been really enjoying being able to teach and learn in this time in the classroom.

With our friends at the Mouse Races

This month also held some fun social events for us. Aside from the fact that every time we got to see our friends, we were all bonding over our Call Day predictions and nervousness, we got to make some fun memories. First was an event that is put on each year at the seminary called We Love the Sem, in which all the pastors of the biggest Lutheran churches in the country come and shower students and faculty and staff with gifts and food. It was a huge dinner complete with Ted Drewes and carriage rides this year and we really enjoyed it! Two days later was another big seminary event called Spring Fest, which was again lots of good food and music. The next night was the Mouse Races at my school, the biggest fundraiser of the year. We bought a table for ourselves and our friends and my parents and it is such a fun time getting to bet on mice as they race! It’s amazing how people get into it, and it’s fun to see that other side of school and church members.

On top of all that, my school had its accreditation site visit at the end of this month. So the day after Mouse Races (seriously, I can’t make this schedule up), Nick and I went to a dinner for the visiting team as they started their accreditation visit. They were in and around my classroom on Monday, watching for things we had written in the report as well as looking for safety procedures. They worked through the day on Tuesday, and Tuesday afternoon they gave their report recommending accreditation (yay!). However, I wasn’t there, because that day was Call Day!

With my parents after the vicarage service

My principal was kind to give me the entire day off on Call Day, as my parents were in town, and it gave me a chance to spend time with them and with Nick on this nerve-wracking day. We got all dressed up, me in a new dress and Nick in his suit and clerical shirt. Right as we got to the seminary campus, about an hour before the service, a major thunderstorm decided to hit. Thankfully we made it inside before the downpour – some people were coming in completely soaked! We endured the long waiting before the service and through the service until the moment came to hear the vicarage assignments. We were so excited to hear that we are assigned to Immanuel Lutheran in Washington, MO. Washington is a cute little tourist town just about an hour outside St. Louis, and close enough to Fenton that I can keep my job at Our Savior. God answered so many of our prayers, both spoken and unspoken, and we are feeling blessed! For more details on that, see our previous blog post. After the service, we were fortunate to meet Nick’s supervising pastor and his wife for the upcoming year, the deaconess for Immanuel, and one of the congregation members. They took us out for a delicious dinner as we got to talk to them about their church and what our life might look like next year. So this summer, we are going to move out to Washington, as they provide a house for us to live in for the year. We are so incredibly excited to be placed there  - we have heard nothing but good things about it, even from two previous vicars of that church! Call Day was a long day – we had just enough time after dinner to sit and watch the later Call Service via livestream before heading back to the seminary to meet the District President and take official photos. We finally got home close to 10:00 that night, and were very thankful for a few days following with no evening commitments to allow us to recover a little bit.

At the Bubble Run with the bubble cannons in the background

We wrapped up the month with some fun events! We went to a trivia night at our friends’ church on Friday night, ate way too much sugar, and discovered that our talents are in the categories of Musical Lyrics and Candy…and not much else. But hey, it was a fun night, some great memories were made, and it benefitted the church. Yesterday morning, we got up early and went out to do a Bubble Run – much like the famous Color Run, but with bubbles instead of powder. It was just a 5K, but we thought doing it would be fun and a way to keep us from completely stopping running after the half marathon. It was only one of those things. It sort of kept us running. It wasn’t really fun. Not to be a downer, but unfortunately, yesterday was a wet and windy morning, and well, bubbles don’t really cooperate in the rain and wind. So we arrived an hour early to stand in the rain and had to wait half an hour past the start time in the wind. Once we got started, it was a pretty nice 5K. Nick and I were some of the fastest out there since it’s just a family fun run, and so we got to the front of the pack pretty early and got the bubbles to ourselves as we ran through. But the “party” at the end wasn’t much of a party, and it took us a good 30 minutes to find our way out and walk back to the car. Needless to say, we won’t be doing a bubble run again…but it was an experience J

So I said it would be a little, but it was really a lot, and not my best writing, I have to say. Thumbs up to you if you’re still reading, I’m pretty impressed. But that was April. We are thankful for May and the bit of relief it brings. We are looking forward with anticipation to the summer, the plans we have and are starting to make, the new beginnings we will have with a new school year, a new (temporary) home, and a new church family to get to know and love. Prayers are appreciated as we work out all the details of our summer and the move to Washington, and especially as Nick begins his work as a vicar in August, that he will learn and serve and share Christ with those around him.

In the name of Christ our Savior,

Nick and Mikaela Duerr