Mom's Retirement

My mom is pretty awesome. She is a confident, strong, independent, SUPER smart woman, and the best mother I could ever ask for. She worked on and off when my brother and I were young, and then more as we got older. 15 years ago, she got a job with World Vision as an administrative assistant. With encouragement from her boss, she went back to school at UW Tacoma and earned her BA in Accounting (we graduated at the same time!). Since then she has worked in the Finance Department at World Vision in multiple areas, such as Gifts-In-Kind and domestic grants. Seriously she is sooo smart! :) Anyway, my mom has been wanting to retire for several years now and was waiting for the right time. She had planned on retiring last Spring, but then my dad suddenly passed away and that changed everything. God's timing sure is perfect. He knew that my mom would need all the amazing people that she worked with at WV to get her through the most difficult time of her life. That is why He did not allow her to retire before that time, I am sure of it. After almost a year of grieving and shifting her life plans to that without my dad, Mom announced her retirement date of March 11, 2011.

World Vision threw her a really great retirement party, and the kids and I were there to celebrate! (Tony had court that day, of COURSE!) There were 15 desserts, 1 for every year my mom worked at WV, several people spoke, and one man even sang a beautiful song for Mom. It was really special and I am so glad that we were able to be there.

The dessert table. Uh, YUM!!!

A co-worker made this awesome cake. Just perfect for my gardening-loving mom!

Sadie and my bro, Tim

Mom with her (former) boss and friend, Mary

Drew - strawberries in his teeth and all :)

Sadie

Zack

Not sure who this was, but he had some really nice things to say about Mom

Susan is another former boss but still wonderful friend to my mom. She also happens to be aunt to one of my friends at church here in OR!

Mom, we all are SO very proud of you, and I just want to say thank you for all the years of very hard work you put in to provide for your family. You are my hero and I love you so very much!