Inspiration Number Two: Mom

(Picture to Come Soon)

SUZIE KINGSLEY
But I just call her MOM

Compassionate, Friendly if I've ever Known It

I know that you may be thinking either A: Why wasn't your mom number one? or B: Oh and she pulled the mom card, had to say her mom... but hear me out.

Born Emma Suzanne Cating, "Suzie" is my mom, and she has been all my life. This would explain why she has had the very most influence on who I have become thus far. If I am ever friendly, ever talkative, ever look into the eyes of another person and feel their pain, love, joy, or frustration... It's because of my mom.

My mom is one of those people that knows everyone, not because she's in a women's league and spends her days waltzing around town dressed to the T mingling in social circles, but because no matter where she is, whatever she is doing, however busy or frustrated she may be, she takes the time to jump into someone else's life.

Growing up we'd go to the same grocery store and my mom could compliment the cashier on her newest homemade headband, ask about the lady's son and daughter, and that new dog they just bought and I would wonder how in the worl she knew all this. They weren't old friends from high school and my mom didn't know her from some otherplace... but everytime my mom came to the store she would ask the lady about her life and always end with "Have a nice day!"

My mom is famous for the "Have a nice day!" and the "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." She lives her life looking for ways she can help others, but not by simply donating money, but donating a part of her life, time, or caring to take an extra minute. She makes birthday cards for people at church, she makes special brownies when someone has had a hard week, she helps the cleaning lady pack up the old blinds that were being thrown away because they would look nice in her house but she wasn't tall enough to reach them by herself.

If you ever meet my mom, she will talk you ear off. I'm not lying, if you meet either of us, we will both make your ear literally plead for silence, but she cares.

As I've grown up in the world, learning these things from my mom has put me in some interesting situations: because honestly I cannot comprehend or understand why someone would be rude or why someone would not want to do everything they could to help another person. I understand frustration, because my mother also raised me to be patient, and that means being patient with those who have had about enough... but why would anyone talk in a rude tone to get a point across. Don't we all stop listening when someone is rude and we all get more frustrated when someone yells...

Suzie Kingsley is mom, a friend, someone who makes bags for the trainers away football games, who does puzzles everynight, who bakes cookies when friends came to study, who can laugh and cut up like a 5 year old when warranted, and who love me and everyone she comes in contact with in a way I've never seen before.

I grow up better everyday because of who my mom was and is to me:

Suzie Kingsley: Mom: Compassionate and Incredibly Friendly

Inspiration Number One: Tiffany Ferguson

I'll start by saying these are in no particular order, but they are the people who inspire me to be who I am today. To grow up the way I am growing up, and people that if I grow up to be at least half of what any of them are, I will be truly blessed.

TIFFANY FERGUSON

Faithful, Loving, Servant

Tiffany Ferguson is someone who at times I'm sure faithless people have called crazy, who many times people have called beautiful especially if they have seen her heart, every time the Kenyans are amazed by, and within the past few years every moment a little girl calls Mom.

I met Tif when we traveled to Kenya last year to live amongst our 'family' there. They are surely her family. Her and her husband led a team to Kenya to become parts of the lives of a little village called Imbirikani and the Massai people who live there. Sharing love, joy, and the Word of God while we share life with them.

Tiffany is woman of faith. When asked whose faith I am inspired by I think "Tiffany" and "Abraham." And no, I'm not kidding. Tiffany knows the Lord in a close and wonderful way, and she shares his love with everyone around her with her kind and gentle spirit and outstanding hopsitality...

but her faith has been most apparent in the last year, when people may have called her crazy, or people in her situation would have doubted she stood for what she believed God was calling her to do.

After having been pregnant with Seri (her baby girl) the year before in Kenya, she returned to Kenya a year later with her 9 month old little girl. Too young for all the shots she needed, unable to eat the food there, and people said why? or how? And Tif said that the Lord had called her family to go, and Seri, named Naserian a Massai name, would be going to too.

Amazingly Seri was a blessing and never a burden. The Massai people who had named the baby in Tif's belly "Baby Love" were elated to see their Naserian. The people were honored by her name and that they were able to share life with her. Tiffany just obeyed the Lord.

In a time when the missions team was reconsidered due to financial instability, Tiffany would speak and say that she knew God had a plan. In a time a year later when she had another Ferguson on the way, she headed back to Kenya to serve and love. Again people asked how? And she said, God.

With a baby on the way, her husband now looking for a new job, the news of a job, but a move hours away, and with her little Seri turning two... She is a picture of faith. Because she knows not where God is leading them everyday, but she trusts that he is there, and he is love, and he is Jehovah Jireh; the Lord will Provide.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Tiffany Ferguson: Woman of Faith.