Tuesday's Tribute

I read about "Tuesday's Tribute" on Kathryn's blog, and I think that it is a wonderful idea.  The whole idea is in response to Tuesday, the two year old who recently died of cancer (see earlier post).  The authors are encouraging everyone to shift our attention away from ourselves and pay tribute to someone from our own lives.  I realize that today is not Tuesday, but I read Kathryn's blog this morning (which she wrote on Tuesday), and I had to do my own "Tuesday's Tribute."
When I think about who I want to pay tribute to, there are many people who come to mind, and in time, I hope to write about them all, but for today, I need to write about two people: my mom and my mother-in-law.  I love my mother very much, and I am thankful that she is just a phone call away so that I can tell her about my day or ask her advice about parenting or decorating our new house.  I do wish that we lived closer to my parents so that we could see them more, but I know that I can talk to them whenever I want.  There are many times that I need to just call and tell my mom that the boys are driving me crazy or tell her about the sweet thing that they did that day.  Just the other day, I called to tell her about Joshua's breakdown at the grocery store because one of the worker's told him to sit down in the cart.  I knew that she would understand because that is EXACTLY how I would have reacted as a child.  Even though she is not literally here, I know that I can always talk to her, so I never remember to tell her that I am thankful for her.  That's the point of this whole thing though right...to appreciate the people in our lives while they are here?  So that is what I am doing even if it is long overdue...paying tribute to my mom and everything that she has done and continues to do for me.
Writing about my mother-in-law might be a little harder to do because she is not here.  I wish that I had been able to spend more time with her because there are many questions that I never asked her.  I never knew her before she had cancer (at least I don't remember her then because I was very young), and through all of the pain and everything else that she went through, she was ALWAYS positive and never complained.  To this day, I have never heard anyone say anything negative about her, and there are so many people who use her strength as an example.  I can't tell you how many times I have thought, "Gena would know what to do.  I wish I could call her and ask her."  I want to ask her how she handled two young boys who were very close in age.  I want to ask her how to be a military wife.  I want to ask her about all of the activities that Matthew remembers her doing with them.  I want to ask her how to take care of two boys while I am by myself and how to convince them that Papa is coming home and he misses them.  I want her to meet her grandsons, and I want them to know their grandma.  There are so many more, and they come to mind daily, but I just have to try to remember the stories and advice that she was able to share.  I know that I am very blessed to have had her in my life as long as I did.