Celebrating Mothers - Mother-in-Law

Welcome to Day Four of Celebrating Mothers. Today's subject is my mother-in-law, Joan.

Joan

Joan is one of six children who lived in Rhode Island most of her life. She was a single mother to my husband and made many sacrifices to make him the priority. She was blessed with a beautiful voice and always was ready to sing in her church. She loves the Lord with all her heart and has a close relationship with Him.

Later, after my husband was grown, she married a loving man named Fred and they moved off to Virginia. I'm sure it was difficult for my mother-in-law and her only son to be separated, but God was in control of everything. I met and married Josh years later and after the wedding they decided to move back to New England. That still took some time, but now they live in a beautiful house in New Hampshire.

Although I had met my future mother-in-law when I was young, it wasn't until I re-met my husband that I really got to know my mother-in-law. She is a deep and spiritual woman with a very giving personality. All those years of prioritizing and relying on God to provide her needs has turned her into a person who understands what is important and what is not. She's not the classic witchy mother-in-law. Not even close!! She loves volunteering in her church in outreach programs, whether it is putting together witnessing packets to help teen girls or pumping gas, she is happiest when she is giving back. She makes beautiful stamped cards and belongs to a program that sends them to soldiers so that the soldiers can write home to their loved ones.
Joan is spontaneous, very funny and an out-of-the-box thinker. She finally has someone to share girly things with (me!) after only having a son, then a husband.  She loves her large extended family and always lends a supportive and listening ear when someone has a problem.

I'm so thankful to her for raising my wonderful, caring, hard-working, giving husband.  Their life was not particularly easy or traditional, but I can see that some of Josh's best qualities came out of some of the trials that he faced.  He loves his mom in a special way  because it was the two of them for so long.  My mother-in-law is wonderful and I look forward to getting to know her even better as the years go by!

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