By Leeann Betts

Two years ago, around the middle of May, an envelope addressed to me appeared in our mailbox. That in and of itself wasn’t unusual. I receive cards for my birthday, sometimes a thank-you from a friend, and even once in a while one from my husband who loves to surprise me by mailing my card.

But this one was postmarked from Florida, where our youngest daughter lives.

When I say “our” daughter, I mean the daughter of my husband’s previous marriage. I am one of those women who has never born children but marries into a ready-made family. In fact, this new family came fully equipped with two daughters, a son-in-law, and, at the time of our marriage in 1999, two grandchildren.

I opened the card, wondering if this was perhaps an invitation, a family picture, or something else.

It was something else.

A Mother’s Day card.

My very first one.

And inside, her carefully penned note saying that she should have sent a Mother’s Day card long ago. After all, I’d been married to her father for almost eighteen years at that point. She expressed her appreciation for my relationship with her, her children, and her father.

I cried.

Honestly. I’d been calling her and her sister my daughters ever since their father and I married. Their children were my grandchildren.

And now, while I wasn’t her birth mother, I was something more than simply “Dad’s wife”.

That card marked a significant change not only in my relationship with her but also in my relationship with her sister. I finally felt comfortable enough to ask probing questions when the time was right about their marriages, their faith, and their family lives. I sensed a shift in how they perceived me.

Or maybe it’s because I perceived them differently.

Because now I really was their mother.

Leave a comment, and I will draw randomly for a print copy (US only) or ebook version (winner’s choice) of Missing Deposits.

Click to tweet: Small acts of kindness: my first Mother’s Day card. #kindnessmatters #Mother

Missing Deposits:

Carly looks forward to a vacation when Mike is hired to assist an association of ranchers in western Colorado catalouge their various mineral rights following the discovery of several large deposits. However, Carly soon learns that the real wealth—and the real danger—aren’t below ground. Someone is out to keep a secret bigger and more profitable than gold and copper. And they’re willing to kill for it.

Leeann Betts writes contemporary romantic suspense, while her real-life persona, Donna Schlachter, pens historical romantic suspense. In the Money is the tenth title in her cozy mystery series, and together she and Donna have published more than 30 novellas and full-length novels. They ghostwrite, judge writing contests, edit, facilitate a critique group, and are members of American Christian Fiction Writers, Writers on the Rock, and Sisters in Crime. Leeann travels extensively to research her stories and is proud to be represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary LLC.

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