Nothing is Wasted

Jason Gray - Nothing Is Wasted (Official Lyric Video) from jason-gray on GodTube.
I've heard this great song on the radio several times over the last few weeks and it has really been an anthem for me.
I highly recommend the above video - but if you don't have time for that - below are the lyrics.

 "Nothing Is Wasted"
 The hurt that broke your heart
And left you trembling in the dark
Feeling lost and alone
Will tell you hope's a lie
But what if every tear you cry
Will seed the ground where joy will grow
 And nothing is wasted
 Nothing is wasted
In the hands of our Redeemer
 Nothing is wasted
 It's from the deepest wounds
That beauty finds a place to bloom
And you will see before the end
That every broken piece is
Gathered in the heart of Jesus
And what's lost will be found again
 Nothing is wasted
Nothing is wasted
In the hands of our Redeemer
Nothing is wasted
 From the ruins
 From the ashes
Beauty will rise
From the wreckage
From the darkness
Glory will shine
Glory will shine

In light of everything that has unfolded this week, and my own personal struggle, I thought I would share this.  I  had the privileged recently of working with a couple clients at the counseling center who were facing bereavement issues over their own personal losses. 
I've read about the stages of grief and heard various counseling theories about coping with grief, but sitting with other people in their pain and letting it be okay, somehow helped me accept my own.

I don't know what stage of grief I am in -  I don't really care.  Because I don't think it ends after stage 5.  I don't think that it gets packaged up and 'dealt with' enough to put it away so that you won't feel it anymore.  This week I have struggled with my own grief, but God gave me this beautiful vision of Himself 'working all things together for my good.'  God was sewing together this giant tapestry with pieces making up my life - joyful and painful pieces all together - creating this beautiful masterpiece that he lovingly wrapped around me like a blanket of peace and comfort. 

Nothing is wasted.  Shattered dreams are not wasted, acts of terrorism are not wasted, terrible accidents are not wasted, death is not wasted.  Because we have a Redeemer, we have a Father who lovingly and miraculously makes beauty from pain.  August 5th will come soon - and even though there won't be a baby - I find myself grateful for God's kindness, because that very day will be baby Mary's 1st birthday.  She is the daughter of my dear friends who are in Taiwan right now waiting to bring her home.  I have prayed for Mary for so many years now that my heart is full of joy for her and for her parents - so it will be a day of rejoicing, even if there is pain, I know it will not be wasted.

funny story

but I don't have time to tell it, so instead you can see the video of H singing "Ice, Ice Baby". It all started when he started calling Popsicles "ice" and I might have taught him to sing that anytime he wanted one....



In other news H is cracking me up everyday. This week he used the words "either" and "belong" appropriately in sentences. When he sees me get ready in the morning he always tells me "Woah! Mommy beautiful!". Melt my heart. Will try and post some more pictures soon.

Halloweening

We successfully got H to wear his Halloween costume before school (he took it off as I was collecting our things to walk out the door) and then we put it back on for the Noah's Ark Party at church. He didn't wear the Mickey Mouse ears long... but I wasn't really counting on that.


Here are the ears before Halloween




Mickey Mouse and Bama (what H calls both of Jeff's parents. Pronounced Bamaw)


H even got to ride on a pony!

Enjoy the video below of H enjoying the petting zoo.

Life is a Dance

I was hoping to have time to sit down and tell stories or post pictures of how great our house looks... clearly, we are not there yet. Right now I'm uploading a video I took tonight on youtube while I hurriedly read through my next 2 chapters of statistics and I'm surrounded by boxes in our office that will likely remain untouched this weekend.
So, while I do my crazy zydeco band dance that is my life right now, please enjoy this video of H doing his Mickey Mouse dance for you. You can even kind of see his new room - with nothing hanging on the wall, that stuff is all still in the boxes. Go figure.



H during his bath tonight. He was lining up his letters on the wall and counting "one, two, three" or at least his version of that.



H climbing up Daddy tonight. He kept yelling "ME TOP, ME TOP!" This kid says stuff everyday I didn't even knew he understood. it totally blows my mind and of course I think he is a genius.

Oh, uploads ready! Here he is..

Ty

I never had the chance to meet Ty, he left the daycare center before we got there... but we sure talk about Ty A LOT. Poor kid really gets a bad rap and nobody even got to meet him. You see, whenever someone in H's class at school spills something, drops food on the floor, or generally makes a big mess, the teacher jokingly says "Uh-oh, who did that? Was it Ty?"

The first time I heard about this I was having lunch with H at school (see emergency room incident) and when one of the kids spilled their milk the teacher asked if Ty did it and all the kids yelled "yeah! Ty!". I noticed a few days later that H kept saying what I thought was "uh-oh, die" when he would drop something, but didn't put two and tow together until dropping H off a few days later and the kids were already eating breakfast. When I set him in his chair his shoe hit the table and knocked his cereal on the floor, H quickly said "uh-oh, Ty!". I looked at the teacher and she laughed and said "Ty didn't do that, he isn't even at the center anymore!" That's when I realized he had been blaming Ty for everything that he spilled.

A month later he still blames Ty when things spill on the floor, but at least now he goes to get the broom and clean up! That Ty sure is a clumsy kid! See for yourself below.

Mommy & Me

I've been looking for a local Mommy & Me gymnastics class to take H to and I finally found one this week! We went for the first time this morning and while the structure was a little much for a 19 month old, he had a lot of fun running down the tumble track and doing rolls on the mats. We might wait till he is a little older to go back, but it was still fun! There's a short clip of us doing handstands down the tumble track below.





Thankfully Daddy came too, cause I was sure sweating trying to keep up with this little one!

best nap ever!

H woke up from the best nap ever this morning. Because while he was sleeping, his Daddy and Grandpa were working hard to put together his first outdoor climbing toy! He had so much fun playing on it when he woke up.











It was a toss up who was more excited, father or son? I took a video of H playing and saying his animal sounds too!

Internet!!!

We finally got internet at our house, so I will try to be more in the loop now. H had a great first Halloween, he was a little lamb and we went to our church's Noah's Ark Party.




Isn't that the sweetest lamb you've ever seen?!

I can't believe my little H is almost 1 year old! Friday is his first birthday and I'm so excited because my dad and sister are coming to help us celebrate! H is getting pretty good at walking (even though his nickname at day care is 'clumsy'). He has also started to point at things and knows where things go. Yesterday, he was pulling clothes off of his shelves and putting them in the dirty clothes basket. He also took a bath tonight while drinking from his his sippy cup the entire time - he is so funny! It has been such an amazing year and I feel so blessed to get to be H's mom. He is pretty incredible. Enjoy the video below of him playing with Daddy last night. It is pretty much the funniest thing I've ever seen.

He's Walking!

you can see for yourself here

Funny Hunny

Here's some pictures of H we took this weekend. He's developing such a fun personality! He is so funny to watch. He loves to examine things and figure out how to take them apart. He also loves to climb on people (and other children) and cuddle. He loves being chased and playing outside.







And here's a video I took tonight of him playing and talking. I sure love my funny hunny

my little jumping bean

H has learned how to cruise from one piece of furniture to another, taking a a couple steps in between....everyone keeps telling me he is going to be walking in no time - yikes! His new favorite thing to do however, is jump! He can't keep his balance yet, but with me supporting his weight he can jump and jump and jump, until my arms get tired! Below is a video of the action.


H has been sick for the last couple weeks. He is finally on the up and up - after 2 doctor's appointments and finally a prescription, he seems to be mostly back to normal. He will be starting a new day care tomorrow, so please pray for him and his transition! Jeff has been enjoying his job, just working lots of long hours and not getting too many days off.

I'm getting adjusted to working full time and really enjoying my job. It has been really amazing and humbling to have the opportunity to work with dozens of homeless individuals in the community. I have heard so many stories from grieving husbands, young mothers, children who ran away from home and never got back on their feet, people who were injured and lost their jobs and on and on. So many people who never thought they would find themselves in this place and feel so defeated and unable to get out of it. I'm helping move some clients into an apartment this week and I'm so excited about it! I really love my job and love the work I'm doing.

I will try to take some more recent pictures of H. I've totally started slacking on my mom picture taking duty.

crawling in the dishwasher

not only has H managed to crawl ALL the way up the stairs by himself (don't worry he was being closely supervised) but he is now crawling his way onto and into the furniture and appliances! Here's a video from this weekend of H crawling into the dishwasher. The angle is way too close on this one, but I was trying to take the video and hold on to him at the same time. He hasn't learned yet not to dive head first off of things.

New Video!

I hear you, I hear you. You want more videos of the cutest baby ever. So, here you go. Here is H playing with the camera. He even shows you a glimpse of his new teeth! He is crawling all over the place and has even started crawling up the stairs... time to get a gate!



I'll try to get some more pics up this week. Jeff starts his job tomorrow and H starts daycare in the mornings! Yikes! I'm sure he will do great, I'll be the one crying all the way to work.

Hilarious video

we got this great video of H laughing hysterically at a ball rolling back and forth. I could watch this 1000 times. It will totally cheer you up, check it out

He Crawls!

Here is a video I took today of H crawling! He is quite the mover these days. Today he crawled under the dining room table, over to my make up bag where he dumped it out, and then he crawled over to his bag of dirty diapers and tried to take them out ... ewww. It is fun to see how determined he is and how much he loves to be able to get what it is that he wants.



Enjoy Papa Bill & JoJo and Aunt Elyse & Uncle Stephen. Notice H is wearing his Aunt shirt and his red shorts for you both. Aunt Amy, H is sleeping with this spot dog every night now - he loves it!

Blowing bubbles

Here's a video of H talking, blowing raspberries (his new favorite sound), and squealing after lunch one day.

The doctor said that he is the size of a 9 month old! He's going to be a BIG boy, in the 90% percentile. Everything looks good though and we got the green light for all kids of food, so I'll take some pictures of him eating meat in a couple days. Until then, enjoy!

new toys!

Here is H playing with some stacking cups. He cracks me up how excited he gets about new toys. It is really fun to see him so engaged with the world around him these days. Enjoy!

Johnny Jump Up

H started wanting to stand up a few weeks ago and that has quickly progressed to jumping. His favorite thing to do these days is jump, unfortunately, his motor skills have not caught up with him yet so it involves a lot of sore muscles after helping him jump. Here's a video of him in his Johnny Jump up! He can't quite figure out how to jump yet, but he really likes to swing and stand and turn in it. Sorry about the sideways ending... my camera skills suffer...

Rolling Over

This month H has started rolling over. He started rolling from back to front at the beginning of the month and then took a break in the middle. Last week he started rolling again and now can roll from front to back and back to front. Now we get to wrestle at diaper and clothes changing time because he wants to roll everywhere. Oh, mobility, we are one step closer. Here's H in action

cute video

Here's a cute video we took today of H laughing while playing with his new favorite toy. He has just entered a ticklish stage and it is super cute!