My Darling Son,
Soon you will be 27!! As I look at those years, I realize they have gone by so very quickly. As your birthday approaches there are things I wish I could say to you. Because of the challenges that afflict your body, and bind your mind, you would not understand. As I morn the loss of the verbal communication that we can never have here on earth, the feelings within my heart spill out of me with no place to go.
As other young men your age move on from their missions, graduate college, have jobs, get married and start having families, do you ever wonder what your future has in store? No, I suppose not, as the future is not anything you can comprehend. Because of your mind, what others consider "normal" everyday hopes and dreams, have been taken from you. But dear Jeff, after this long earthy journey ends, you will be given all that you have missed out on in this life.
If you were capable of ever asking, Why am I here? - This is the answer that I would give you. YOU ARE HERE TO BE MY TEACHER, and a teacher to those around you. One day, in the next life, you will be able to open this gift with joy and understanding.
First, you taught me what it means to experience the kind of love that exists only between a mother and her child. Sometimes I thought I would expire from sheer elation. Sometimes I thought I would expire from sheer exhaustion. Both could claim Mother love to be their sire.
From the very beginning of your life, you suffered with many life-threatening health conditions, surgeries, and physical challenges; you taught me patience, tolerance and long-suffering. You also taught me about sacrifice, charity, service, and what it means to forget one's self. I yearned with every fiber of my being-would have given every fiber of my being, to have you whole. But that was not to be. You then taught me to accept and cherish you for who you were, not for what might have been. You have taught me to study, learn, fight and to never give up.
Throughout the years you have taught me what is truly important in this world and quite frankly, what is not. Most of all, you have taught me what it means to align my will with that of God. To know that, in every case, His ways, His means, His timetable, His truth, are all that is worth having. You have taught me how much He loves me, and how much trust He has placed in me, by allowing me to have you in my life. I know that if I am ever to return and live with Him, I needed all the things that only you, would and could teach me.
You, my son, ARE A TEACHER, and the gift of knowledge has no price!
Thank you for all that you have taught me. I love you beyond measure, forever, and always.
Your loving Mother
Posted by My Mom
