My Mum

Today is Mum’s birthday. Earlier this year we celebrated her graduation and it’s only fitting that today’s post be my tribute that I wrote to honour her…so here goes:

“Here’s what Psalm 144: 12 – 15 says:
12 Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
13 Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields;
14 Our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets.
15 Blessed is the people of whom this is true; blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.

As children, Mum hand wrote Psalm 144:12 on bristol board and placed the bristol board in each of our rooms. “Our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace”. Mum was (and still is) a mum first and everything else after. She invested time in each of us, she loved, prayed for and with, cried for and with, supported, encouraged, consoled and laughed at and with each of us. She notoriously placed her needs second in order for us to have our needs, dreams, wishes and wants met.

So it means to world to me, that today, we can come together today to celebrate Mum. A few years ago when Mum told us that she was going to pursue this degree, I was so excited for her! This meant that she’d have something new to focus on so I would get less calls asking if Isaiah and Noah brushed their teeth (joking…kinda). No…what this really meant was that Mum would…for the first time in her life pursue something that was solely for her. After doing all that she could, spiritually, physically and emotionally to ensure that “their daughters would be like pillars carved to adorn a palace”, it was now time to focus on herself.

And true to the Doyle family way…we would all share this journey with her. The long days of classes…the Saturdays that we couldn’t count on her to watch the kids. Her long nights and early mornings writing papers….which we heard about when we called on our way to work. All culminated in that one moment. That day, Friday May 16, when she walked down that aisle and was called up to receive her degree. And while what she received that evening was only a paper acknowledging her successful completion of the program. All the experiences that she had during these three years are the real testaments to Mum’s sticktoitiveness.

Mum…I’m so very, very, very proud of you. You came, You saw, You conquered. You didn’t have to pursue this degree at this point in your life. But you did. And you did it oh so well!

So congratulations. And to bring this full circle, I claim Psalm 144: 13 – 15 over you and dad:

I pray that your barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Your sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in your fields;
I pray that your oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity and no cries of distress in your streets.
Because blessed are my parents whose God is the Lord.

I love you to the moon and back. Really. Truly. Deeply. And I hope that I can make Isaiah and Noah half as proud of me as I am of you.”