It is during times like this when I realize that the words to describe how thankful we are…do not exist…so it is our prayer that you allow our hearts to say what words cannot…THANK YOU…THANK ALL OF YOU!!!
Also…there is just no way that I could ever describe how each of you felt towards my mom…or how she felt towards you…who am I to try and even put these kinds of feelings into words…so like I just said about your hospitality…please allow our hearts to thank you in a way that words cannot…
In a few moments you will see a DVD video tribute that I put together before we left Canada…but because of the amount of time we had before catching our flight it was very hurried…so I apologize…because I know that I am capable of much better…there was so much more I wanted to do…in fact…though I work full time…I own a little video production company…and I make funeral video tributes for people all the time…hmmm…you know…I never thought I would be making one of these for my mom…
Folks…before I say what I feel our Lord has put on my heart…I need to ask that these words be taken in the spirit in which I put them together…it is not my intention to offend…or to force anything down anybodies throat…it is with all the humbleness that I could possibly ask for….and what I am about to say is from conversations with my mom or with a close friend of my mom….so again…I would ask that it be taken in the way I expressing it….
Shortly after I was born in 1960 my mom gave me up for adoption...Bobby and my new mother “Jean” kept in touch all through the years...and just before my 18th birthday Jean asked me if I would like to go to Phoenix Arizona and meet my birth mother (Bobby)…
Over the next 5 years our relationship was somewhat rocky…but after working things out we really just started having the type of relationship that a mother and son should have…
As you could imagine…one of the questions I had for her was “why did you give me up”…though the rest of those reasons will stay private between my mom and me…I would like to share with you what she told me was her main reason for giving me up…
My mom wanted me to have what every mother wants for their child…she wanted me to have a better life…she wanted me to have all the things in life that she never had…
From the day I found out I was adopted…the only thing I wanted is what every other child wants…all I wanted was my mom…the only thing that mattered to me was mom…not all the other material things in life…I just wanted my mom!
You see…she wanted to give me a gift…and this gift would last my whole life…and she felt that the only way she could give me this gift was by giving me up for adoption.…
It was 3 years after we met in July 1981… I was 21 when she said to me that she realized how much of a mistake she had made…that the “gift” she thought she had given me was not what she had hoped for…because even though I was in a home where I was being well cared for…I was now sitting in a jail cell…and even though I tried to explain to her that the path I choose was my decision and it was the fault of the family she gave me to…after all I was 21 and responsible for my own decisions …but it didn’t seem to matter what I said to her she continued to blame herself…
While I was in jail…my mom asked a good friend of hers to see me…his name was Ron Grainger…Ron came into the jail 2 or 3 times a week to teach a bible study...
It was after one of the bible studies …Ron and I had a talk and he asked me if I would like to turn my life over to Jesus Christ and follow him…I said that I wasn’t sure just yet…but that there was one thing I did know for sure…and that was “I wanted to go to heaven”…well he said…there is only one way to get there…and then he showed me the well known scripture of John 3:16…which says “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”
Then Ron told my mom everything that happened…and she was so thrilled… that a short time later she sent me this bible…and though it was about another 10 years before I started truly living for Christ…my mom was convinced that I became a Christian right there in that jail cell…
Please allow me to read to you what she wrote on the first page of this bible to me…
July 17th 1981
To my son Tyler
Changing old habits and sticking with your new found belief will be hard but worth it son.
I know if you pick this up and read it often it will help. Your life is worth more than booze and drugs, stick with the good feeling you get from being in touch with Jesus.
While you are away study the word often, find Ron & others and get your questions answered.
You know Jesus loves you& welcomes you home to him. I love you & hope you are strong enough to fight the devil & those of his who would take you from our Lord.
Pray & think (meditate). Keep a song of love & joy in your heart.
Forever all my love
Mom
Even if I had attended the finest schools…or rubbed elbows with the most well known people…or even if my mom left me a map to a buried treasure worth millions…it would still pale in comparison to the gift that she so lovingly gave to me...which was a gift of the word of God…a seed of hope that would blossom and produce years later in my life…this most precious gift which would unlock my future…and forgive my past…
You see…my mom gave me the greatest gift a mother could ever give her child…and that is…eternal life with Jesus Christ!!
I love you mom…