Happy Birthday Mom!

Kathy Lynne Hansen

b. March 18, 1945


As a girl she enjoyed riding her trike,
vacations with family, music,
and playing the piano.
She loved her sisters!
Although as sisters are
they didn't always get along,
I know she loves them still.
She has one brother,
the baby of the family.

She liked her independence,
reading, and goofing around!

Adorable ♥

Dad, Mom, Kathy, Leila,
James, and Elizabeth

She still loves GOOFING around.
Anything to get a good belly laugh! ☺Grandma invented Teddy Bear Picnics,
according to my children.
She puts the F U N in everything
we do with her.
[And the funny sometimes!]

We live in an imperfect world.
Our lives have not always been close.
There were years of pain,
years of anger,
years of frustration,
and years of misunderstanding.

The pain came from poor choices,
the anger came from the mishaps of
those choices,
the frustration came as we didn't have
the tools or the desire to work through the
mishaps from the poor choices that caused the pain.

the misunderstanding came from me.

I didn't understand her life.
I didn't try.
I didn't want to.
I was as stubborn as she raised me to be.

One day I realized the only thing holding me back
from having a mother,
MY mother,
was my fear.

Fear of more pain,
and mishap,
and poor choices.


I chose to desire to change.
I desired to change,
and I began to understand.

Not all the choices she made,
but to understand her as a person.


I use to fear being like her.
Now I fear NOT.

There are so many qualities
in a person.
We all have areas that need improvement.
I needed improvement in the area of
understanding,
being judgmental,
narrow-sighted,
needing forgiveness.

I needed the power of forgiveness,
and the healing that comes from letting go.

Letting go and seeing her,
the way God sees her.

"When we count flowers,
we cease to count weeds!"



I love you, my Mother.
I love the compassion that you have,
that I feel within myself.
I know where it came from now.

I love the tenderness you have,
the tenderness that makes me see the world
in a way that hurts sometimes,
and yet which also allows me to understand
where healing comes from.

I love that I can make mistakes
and know that tomorrow is a new day;
and that I haven't ruined my children.
They will be okay.
Because I am okay.
I thank you for that.

I love that the hardest
thing I know you have had
to do is forgive yourself.
I love that you are still working on that,
and yet, you accept my forgiveness,
even when you don't understand how I could.

I love that when I hold a baby,
I know that my ability and need
to love little children comes from you.
You are really good with babies.
You love them,
and you share your testimony of their worth,
even when you are not sure of your own.

I love you, and I am thankful....

...for the life you gave to me,
because you were given life.

Happy Birthday Mom.