Those who have influenced me - Jean

Jean and her husband and newborn moved to the small town that I lived in growing up when I was a tween or early teen. (I could probably figure this out, but does it really matter...no.)

Her husband was a ceramic engineer and worked at a local factory that made toilets. She was the stay at home mom to her small child. We met them because they came to our church. I grew up Lutheran - Missouri Synod. Our church wasn't very big and so you got to know people pretty quick especially if they came to something besides just the church service on Sunday.

Their family started to grow. We started a church in our town and our families with a few others were the core group that ventured out. Their family started to grow as well as I did and I was asked to babysit for her while she held a meeting at their house. I was very excited to have my first babysitting job! The meeting was of the Le Leche League which was something very different for me. I was born in the 70's when breast feeding was not embraced so this was a way different concept for me. (She did it, but to be in an entire room full of breast feeding moms as a tween...a little different.) As you can probably tell, Jean helped introduce me to some different ways of doing things than I was exposed to in my house.

Over the years as I spent time with them, the snacks at VBS were a little different. Some of the food in their house was a little different. They bought food at a co-op? Why in the world would you need to do that I thought...whole wheat flour? Isn't "Home Pride Wheat" good enough? (If you don't know me very well, these questions may not be funny to you...if you do know me, I hope that you are laughing.) The parents and kids shared a bedroom...why stumble to another room to get a crying small child? Books scattered everywhere...how many books could a kid want you to read to them?

We moved away from our little town when I was 17. It was a huge move for my family emotionally. I had lived there since I was 4. We only moved two hours away, but I was leaving what was the town that "I grew up in". One of my sweetest remembrances though was Jean writing each of us in our family a letter. I found it so very thoughtful that she would take the time to tell me what knowing me (not just my family) had meant to her.

So the profound impact that she has had on my life is seeing a Christian woman live out her life. She was not just a Christian on Sunday or when people were watching. She made our church family her family because they didn't have other family around. (Neither did we!) I saw her be passionate about things she believed in which centered around healthy living for her family. She was willing to share her life with these three or four giggly girls in Sunday School for a few years. She trusted me with her kids! She showed that she cared and made me realize that I need to do that too. I think that I do the worst at showing people that I care about them of the other things that she has taught me...because I did choose to nurse my kids and I use a whole lot of whole wheat flour! I'm going to guess that she may have wanted to home school more too, but it may have been a little too hard. Too hard, not because of her kids, but because of the social environment.

One last thought...Jean chose to be around the other families in the church though I know that we were judgmental of how they chose to run their family. I believe that Jean did what was right for her family regardless of what others thought. I'm realizing that we probably hurt her in some of those ways and I'm sorry about that.

Now I need to go and find her to thank her!