Love you, Mom!

I've been debating about posting this for a while.  It's meaningful to me.  It's sentimental.  It's very special.  This is the speech I gave at Momma's memorial.  Well, most of it anyway...I've left off a few parts.  But recently I've been pretty emotional about Mom -- just missing her, needing her, wishing she was around.  Maybe posting these words is a way for me to love on her from afar.  Yes.  That is what I want this to be.
Love you, Mom!

It's been a very long 23-month journey for our family.  And at the same time, 23 months flew by and it just wasn't long enough...I'm not sure that anyone can be fully prepared for losing someone so close to them.  I know there's not enough mental preparation I could have done in any amount of time to get ready to lose my mom and best friend. 

But. There has been such purpose in these past two years.  These years were nothing we expected, nothing we would have asked for, nothing we necessarily wanted; but it was an opportunity to drink deep of our Savior.  A long, fruitful, and purposeful 23 months. 

Beyond these recent times, there has been such purpose in the past 62 years of Mom's life -- and that's what we are celebrating today!  She lived with purpose.  Because of that, today and every day, we want to come before the ONE who reigns on high, the ONE who molded and formed every funny-bone in Mom's body (because she was indeed funny), the ONE who intimately knew Mom's suffering -- through eyes of compassion and empathy, the ONE who never let go of Mom – and the ONE who is now hand in hand with His cherished daughter. 

We want to come before that ONE today.  And praise His name while we honor the forever-memories of Judy. 

Momma was a hoot and half.   She was always getting herself into these funny situations where our only response was just "only Judy…" ...situations like making Dad cry on one of their earlier dates by tricking him into eating a spoonful of Chinese mustard, to trying to hide a DUCK in her dorm room, to buying a car off ebay as her first internet purchase ever, a myriad of stories of her dressing up in costumes (once, even changing into a giant chicken costume on a tiny little airplane bathroom during flight), to playing songs with flashlights up her nose, or buying two real yellow birds for me once when I was little, even though I really had just wanted a stuffed animal of a bird -- that's the epitome of Mom always going above and beyond!  The status quo wasn't enough for her.  She made things special, made things memorable, and she lived her life with the Lord at the center. 

Momma never met a stranger; she loved easily and deeply.  She adored Dad, and together they were the prime example of a united couple running towards the heart of God without plans to ever stop. 

So, yes – Momma truly lived with purpose. 

Momma rose up in this life because of the fact that the Lord has risen -- her life was based on that fact.  And through the trial, through the sacrifice, the pain, the terror, the joy, the love, I pray there are ripple effects.  I pray that our family, and all of us here, have learned to give glory because of Judy.  Glory in our refinement to the ONE I talked about earlier. 

Because if it's for HIS glory, then it's worth it.