My Favorite Mother's Day Present Ever ...

As Mother's Day nears, my kids will ask what I want for Mother's Day and I always say, "please don't buy me anything, just be nice to each other.  That's what makes me happy".  Inevitably one of the kids will respond ... "That's too hard, can't we just buy you something?"

The thing is, I don't want them to spend their money to buy me something that I don't need.  The things I really treasure can't be bought.  My favorite Mother's Day present was given to me by my daughters when they were 4 and 5 years old (that was 10 years ago!).  I still have it - framed and sitting on a shelf near my bed.

As little 4 and 5 year old girls who were just learning to spell and write, they painstakingly wrote me a letter, asking their daddy how to spell each word and printing in their neatest hand-writing.

WE LOVE YOU MOM
You smell really pretty
You play with us all the time
You love us lots
You read us good stories
You help us when we get hurt
You help us make stuff
You make our hair look pretty
You draw elephants and giraffes
You make good brownies and muffins and cookies
You look pretty
We love you Mom!
Love, Emme and Maea

I love this little gift because they wrote down all of the things that were meaningful to them.  The stories that I read to them.  The times when I created cute curls and little twists in their hair with colorful clips.  All the exotic animals I drew for them while they sat quietly in church nestled close to me so they could see what I was drawing.  All the bandaids and kisses applied to scraped knees and elbows.  THAT's the stuff that's meaningful - and what a precious gift they gave me that Mother's Day.

There's one other Mother's Day gift I appreciate, because it has so much meaning for children in Ethiopia.  Many of them don't even have a mom to celebrate on Mother's Day. 

For the last few years, one of our sponsor families has donated time and materials to create beautiful Mother's Day cards to commemorate a donation (given in honor of a mom) to a critical project at one of our Care-Points in Ethiopia.  This year, Robyn Davidson, who sponsors a child and has actually visited Kind Hearts Care-Point in Ethiopia, has created a Mother's Day card using photos of the kids that attend Kind Hearts.  100% of the funds received will go toward the building of a new school building so that the Care-Point can expand and help even more children!

Please click HERE  http://davidsonpartyoffive.blogspot.com/.

Presently, Kind Hearts serves 150 children (orphaned or from exremely poor families) providing nutritious food, clean water, clothing, medical care, Christian discipleship and an incredibly valuable EDUCATION!!!  Education is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty that persists generation after generation - and with the construction of a new school building, Kind Hearts will be able to enroll more children and serve up to 300 children!

Now THAT'S a meaningful Mother's Day gift!!

Mother's Day is less than 3 weeks away.  Instead of buying something she doesn't really need - please consider making a donation in her honor and build a school in Ethiopia! 

Robyn will personalize the card with your mom's name and mail it to her in time for Mother's Day, explaining that this gift in her name will build a school and educate the next generation of children in Ethiopia!!

Please click here to make a donation and provide the details for your personalized Mother's Day card!  http://davidsonpartyoffive.blogspot.com/  You can conveniently and securely make a donation via paypal in the upper left corner of Robyn's blog.

I love Mother's Day gifts that have a big meaning behind them.  What was your favorite Mother's Day gift?