Dear Me

Dear Me,

Today you are 53 years young. Happy birthday!  You were born in Lancaster General Hospital at 7:30 a.m. on the Ides of March.  You completed the Denlinger family which included twins Lester and Lois, who were 11 years older than you, and brothers (Eu)Gene and Glen who were 6 and 3 when you were born. Your parents were Elvin and Edith (Kreider) Denlinger and they named you Mary Ann.  They brought you home to a chicken farm in Mountville, Pennsylvania where you spent the first 2 1/2 years of your life. Your family then moved to a chicken farm in Conestoga, Pennsylvania where you lived until you got married.

You spent an idyllic childhood in a family where you knew you were loved. Early childhood memories include tagging along with your father into the chicken house and being terrified of the roosters that were just waiting to jump on you and flap their wings against your back. You always tried to stay close to your dad so he could protect you from their brutal attacks. In spite of the roosters, you liked to follow your dad around as he worked around the farm doing this and that. You also remember going shopping with your mother into Lancaster City. The Watt & Shand store was the highlight of the trip because you loved the elevator ride between the floors.  A man operated the elevator and he always smiled at you when you stepped into his domain and asked your mother, "which floor, Ma'am?" He would then close the inner door and then the outer door, push down on a lever and up or down you would go. Another favorite memory is riding along with your mother to pick up the school children.  You proudly stood in the center of the front seat of the car the whole trip. That was certainly a very dangerous place to ride in a car but back then no one had ever heard of  car seats.

You remember playing ball with Glen, watching lots of sports on TV with Gene, sharing a bedroom with Lois (much to her annoyance) and visiting Lester in Honduras when he was there for Voluntary Service.  You attended River Corner Mennonite Church with your family and went to New Danville Mennonite School from first to eighth grade and then spent your high school years at LMH. During your teen years you logged a lot of hours in the chicken house collecting eggs. Every day after school, your job was to gather the eggs either in the "green" house or the "block" house.  One vivid memory you have is of having a cart completely full of eggs (approximately 90 dozen) and pushing the heavy load onto the loading dock in the block house to transfer to a larger cart. You misjudged the edge of the landing and the entire cart along with all the eggs went crashing to the floor 20 feet below. That was not a very fun thing to tell your father about.

High school was a pleasant experience and you had a nice amount of friends. In your senior year you had English class and Study Hall with this guy who enjoyed talking with you and you with him. At graduation, you figured you would probably never see him again and so were surprised when two weeks after leaving LMH forever, he called and asked you for a date. Love blossomed and 2 years later on August 23, 1980 you and Steve Lehman pledged to share the rest of your lives together.This year you will celebrate 33 years of marriage!

Life certainly wasn't always easy for the two of you. Agriculture was where your hearts were, but after a failed attempt at hog farming brought you to the edge of financial ruin, doubts crept into your minds and future farming endeavors seemed unwise. Several years later, an opportunity arose for Steve to purchase a small truck that he could use to haul manure out of farmers' pits. Thus was the lowly beginning of Lehman Ag Service, Inc. Although this business usually managed to pay the bills (albeit sometimes late), it was definitely not without its struggles and many a time you and Steve questioned whether you should just quit and walk away from it. During those discouraging times, something always happened that seemed to be a sign that you should continue on. Gradually, things improved and when you eventually sold this business to two of your sons, they were able to continue and expand it and today it is a very successful company. After selling the business, Steve focused on crop farming and managing Green 'N Grow Compost, LLC, a composting operation that he began in 2010 and which has surprisingly (to you) been very successful.

Three sons and one daughter were born to you and Steve--Shawn, Jay, Josh and Megan.  You will write more about your family in future blogs but it is safe to say that these children have blessed you beyond anything you could have ever asked or imagined. Each one brought a different personality and added unique diversity to the family but each child was so special and so loved.  Parenting was a role that you enjoyed immensely and although there were certainly tough times the joys FAR outweighed the sorrows.  Two lovely daughters-in-law, Melissa and Kristen (who are actually sisters), expanded your family even further. You are now loving being a grandparent to Alexis, Lydia and Mark and looking forward to another grandson in July.

Over the years, you always kept a foot in the workplace. After high school and marriage you worked as a bank teller.  When children joined the family, you worked part-time off and on as a legal secretary, and also did typesetting in your home for a local publishing company for about six years. You have now worked at New Hope Community Life Ministry as a secretary for seven years.  This job is a perfect fit for you and you love it.

Faith is an important part of your life's journey.  You accepted Christ as your Savior at 12 years of age and although have questioned God and circumstances, you never doubted that Jesus is Lord and  that you have been created by God for a purpose (but have certainly wondered what the purpose is at times). As a Christian you strive to live a life that shows the love of God through you, however, you will be the first to admit that you still have a long way to go in your spiritual walk with the Lord.

This is a very brief outline of your first 53 years. If anyone besides you reads this letter and they want to know more details they will have to ask you. Now that you have started a Blog, maybe some of their questions will be answered in future postings. Enjoy your birthday!

Love,

Mary