irene carole: Mama's Day

In this little family of ours, Mother's day is like celebrating my mom's birthday a month early, its a very important day. Though I think 24 hours is hardly enough to dedicate to and celebrate my mom and how complete and wonderful her love has made our lives ... most especially through all the hard times.

Big sister and I had pretty special plans for the day, so we both got up really early to prepare our surprises, got all dolled up then dolled up mother dearest for our Sunday Brunch at Cheesecake Factory to start the day.

Mother dearest looked so beautiful,

But even then, on a beautiful Sunday morning all dolled up, my mom's outward beauty pails in comparison to how beautiful of a woman she is on the inside. My mom has faith that could "move mountains" and if ever I need a definition of strength, I simply look at my mom and know the answer.

When we arrived for brunch we had to wait for our two special guests to arrive but looked through the super yummy brunch menu and did a little gift opening while it was just the three of us. For starters mother opened up sister's present, because we both knew that emotions would run high and it would be a special moment the three of us.

The note attached to her present read:

Happy Mother's Day Mom!
Now you carry us near your heart.

I love you.

Her initial reaction to opening her present was this:

But a second after reading what was stamped into the silver,

all we saw were tears.

Then the tears turned into weeping,

Followed by tears of our own.

The first three letters stamped into my mother's necklace

are the three letter's that we miss the most in this world.

My dad.

Seeing those three letters written down, right next to my sister's name and my own brought the three of us to tears instantaniously. Never have I seen my mom brought to tear so quickly, because usually she's to strong for her own good.

After the cry fest, we had a few silly moments

to ourselves and then our guests arrived.

Then .. SURPRISE!!!

Our two other "seestars" arrived and so did even more laughter.

The food was SOOO good.

And so pretty.

Then I gave my mom my present for her, a camera she can call her own! She's addicted to our DS Lite, so I got her a touch screen camera she can play with. Also, I figured my big ole DSLR is to heavy for her when she does take pictures. And just like me and my sister, my mom loves pictures .. I'm sure we got it from her.

On a total side note, it was nice having Rio home this weekend, we've missed her around here. And though her visit and her mom's visit earlier in the week were not under the best of circumstances, I'm grateful that our families have each other to lean on in good times, bad times, sad times or in celebration.