My Mom's Birthday!

Why am I sharing the birthday letter I wrote to my mom, you ask?

Well. I'll tell you. It's because my mom - also basically my teacher, role model and friend - is really wonderful and I wanted the internet to know how much I love her. I get told all the time (I literally mean on a daily basis) that we look exactly alike and that I act, sound or even write like my mom does. All of this makes me proud, 'cause if I turned out to be the gracious, child-lovin', Jesus-chasin', advice-givin' kitchen master my mom is, I would be delighted.

Beware; this is completely full of randomness and bursts of love.



Dear Mommy,

Happy (insert number of choice)th birthday! Hopefully this gift is exactly what you asked for. Please wear to Church next week!   (Side note: among some sweeter things, I bought my mom a pirate eye patch from the party section the other day. Just a little bit of Graham weirdness.)

Thank you for inviting me to come to the conference  - I had a great weekend with you and I would do it again, even with the neck/ back pain!

I meant what I said yesterday! I'm glad I can talk to you as a mom and as a friend, particularly as I get older and  need a mature opinion in certain situations. You've done a great, great job at more than just raising me.  And 19 + years of work have paid off, Mom! I'm fabulous.

So here's to the perfect day (and year ... and life) for my beautiful, awesome Mom. May you live at least another ... 58 years. Yep. That'd be great.

I love you!

Sincerely,

Kailey

One of Them

The people who help you up
And the people who hug you till your tears are dry
Are the people who feel you -
The people who burned with you when the match was struck;

People who are burned already.

The truth is that ache is unavoidable,
But ache is what gives us power.
When you’ve fallen, you haven’t lost;
Not nearly as much as you’ve gained.
Those who fall are those who will fall over and over again
Everyday with their friends who suffer beside them.

Yes – everyday. Every friend who feels the repercussions of divorce,
Every soul that wastes away slowly under the increasing pressure of depression,
Every child who’s been left without a mother,
Every mother left without her child,
Everyday and everyone.

The tears of an angel harvested
By the man who promised her the stars,
The sweat of a child, terrified
Of the sound beating he knows is coming,
The sleepless weeks of a mother
Who misses the son she lost to tragedy,
The dark circles on a good heart
Whose hands are tied as they watch their house fall.

You know them all -
And all of them personally.
You know their ache and the sound of their breath
When it hitches, even though they’re too tired to cry.
You remember and you feel it -
Like the slit never healed,
Like the devil never left,
Like the shadows never fled,
Like the coffin never closed,
Like the bruise never changed,
Like words are still ringing,
Like the blow is still stinging,
Like the orphan is still waiting,
And the gates are still locked shut.

But every time you fall with them
(And fall with them again and again),
You remember;
Cuts do close!
The devil grows tired.
The sun chases the darkness over the far, far horizon.
You can silence the words.
There are good people in the world
Who will come and save us from abandonment ,
Who come and lift us from tragedy,
Who can feel with us and breathe with us and pray with us
Until the locks fall and the gates crumble -
And you remember,
You are one of them now.

My Africa

 I found this poetic and real. It's a good description of the place I miss! This isn't much of a blog post, but I don't think I need to add anything else.

Originally from this website:  http://www.afrostylemag.com/ASM9/

Colors of the World

Let's just say that I felt like I really needed to share some pictures. Here below are a collection of my favorite photos from my Pinterest Board 'Colors of the World'. I personally feel like this is the one board that took any kind of artistic talent to put together. I didn't take any of them ... or edit any of them ... but hey! The collection itself was in original idea that was begging to be put together.




























 








So that's the beauty of people! Credits to God for the artistry. Thanks to the photographers.