We made it!

I've been waiting for this day for several weeks now, and it is finally here! I'm off work for 2 weeks and 1 day and I have no school for almost a month. I've been waiting to update the blog, and sleep in, and take a nap, and catch up on my sewing projects, and I have lots of activities planned for H and I! We are all desperately in need of a break!

Here are some pics of us getting ready for Christmas







H had a lot of fun helping us decorate the tree this year. It has been fun to see him get excited about Christmas and understand a little more about it. He's had several opportunities to meet Santa and until recently it did not go well. He recognizes Santa and points him out anytime he sees him on TV or in decorations, but at Jeff's Dad's Christmas party Santa showed up and gave each child there a present. For the first time H actually sat on his lap and after he opened his present he went back and told Santa, "Tank You" - it was adorable!



H's daycare had a Christmas pageant this year and H's class was supposed to shake bells and sing jingle bells. We've been practicing jingle bells for weeks now and H's teacher tells me that he is always the loudest singer, so I was hoping to capture him singing sweetly... instead....



Here he is before the song started and before he spotted us in the crowd, and after...



He spent the entire song wresting with the teacher to run away and crying. Poor kid, maybe next year.

Jeff and I got a group together from our church this year to go to a local homeless shelter and host a Christmas party. I didn't get any pictures of it, but we had such a good time singing Christmas Carols, sharing the hope of Jesus, and passing out presents to the residents. While we were there one of the residents had a gift he wanted to give us and he sang, O Holy Night, and he had the most incredible voice - it was truly a gift to worship with him. As we were leaving Jeff & I were talking to a man who told us that another homeless person had just been shot and killed at a bus station just a few blocks away and he was telling us his story of how he ended up in the shelter and how grateful he was to be there. It is always so humbling to hear the stories of others and such a blessing to see how God chooses to provide for them and the joy and hope they have in spite of really difficult circumstances. It was so much better than a white elephant gift exchange and I think we started a new tradition at our church!

We went to Jeff's company Christmas party last night and took a picture together before we went. Sadly, we realized the last picture we took of the two of us was our anniversary last year. oops



Merry Christmas Friends! Wishing you a season full of Joy in Jesus and opportunities to share his glory and greatness!

Motherhood

Becoming a mother has changed me, in some ways the change seemed immediate, in others it has happened gradually. H and I just returned from spending 5 days visiting Papa Bill & Jo Jo in Louisiana. We had such a good time and got lots of quality bonding time together. It was my first time to travel alone with H and I was so proud of him. He did such a good job and on every flight we were on someone would stop me and tell me what a sweet boy he was or how he did such a good job. Everyone we sat next to H tried to share his snacks with and gave them stickers and toys to play with. People are always telling me how beautiful H is and are so charmed when he just talks and talks to them. I was thinking over this trip about all of the things that I used to inwardly cringe at before becoming a Mommy... things like never getting to eat or drink anything without a child appearing and wanting whatever you had, kids waking up before dawn and running around the house screaming, not being able to complete a task without some kind of interruption, toddlers crawling all over you and being your constant shadow, stinky diapers and projectile vomit, the list could continue, but I think you get the idea. Not that I always gracefully embrace all of these things now, but I certainly don't cringe the way I did before becoming Mommy.

At night in Louisiana H and I would cuddle in bed together and I would sing songs of Truth to him until he fell asleep. I couldn't help thinking about our Heavenly Father and the pride and joy He feels when we want to draw close to Him and let Him sing over us His peace, hope for our futures and His unending love. Being H's Mommy has helped me to grasp just a little bit of what it means to love unconditionally. It has also helped me to embrace life's joys and sorrows knowing that I cannot control the outcomes of either. It has changed my relationship with God in that I have put away some of my 'performance anxiety' trying to earn approval and love. H and I can have a terrible day where everything seems to go wrong and I'm totally frustrated, but I don't love him any less on those days than I do on the days where everything goes according to schedule. How much more perfect is God's love towards His children? It does not waver or fluctuate depending on how much we are trusting Him or the number of good deeds we have accomplished. It just is - now that is a miracle.

A few weeks ago I posted about baby James and his battle with a cancerous brain tumor. I have continued to follow his progress and have not stopped thinking about this family and praying urgently for them. I even dreamt about little James last night. James's tumor has come back full force and yesterday his parents took him home under the care of hospice to spend their final days or weeks showing him just how much they love him. I have cried many tears for this family and have cradled H longer, kissed him more and told God how grateful I am for every single day that I get to be H's mommy. I think part of why this has been so emotional for me is that H is just one year older than little James. It could just as easily be H fighting this battle. Our children are gifts given to us by God, they are not possessions to hoard, lives to control, or even promises of bright futures. They are blessings from the Father and He can use them to pour out his blessing in whatever way He chooses.

So, embrace your children today. Embrace your Mommy or Daddy journey wherever it has led you. Embrace the Heavenly Father who is the giver of all good and perfect gifts. Pray, pray for the Sikes family as they care for little James. Pray for all of the Mommies and Daddies who are struggling to care for their children, struggling to conceive children, and those fighting alongside their sick children. And let us give thanks to God.

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.

18 months!

I wanted to post this about 3 weeks ago...but, now that I'm so late there is so much more to say!
I can't believe H is already a year and half old, he is just so big! He is fully a toddler now and doing things I didn't know he could EVERY day. Here are the highlights of 18 months:

weight: 26.5 lbs
height: 34.5 inches, he is almost 3 feet tall!
shoe size: 7 wide! kid has monster feet!

New words: He can now answer yes, no questions with a "yeah", "noooo". Right now he says yeah more than no. He just started making fish faces when you ask him what fish says and says "ohhh ohhh eeee eeee" when you ask him what a monkey says. He says "ooowwww" for what a kitty says. He loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the mornings and will yell "Oh Toodles!" with Mickey. He also started saying "Oh Dear", and "Let's Go!" He's getting to be a pretty good mimicker and started calling Grandpa by his first name, saying "Hi Jon". He starting calling his lovely, "mammy" instead of lamby. He also started sharing his juice and snacks with lamby and pretending to feed him.


He's getting so good at putting things together, stacking and using his pincher fingers


He also wants to help with EVERYTHING


He likes to cuddle on my lap and watch Elmo's World or Thomas the Train. He is starting to understand the humor in some of the kids shows and laughs when they do something funny.

We also had our first emergency room visit this month when H swallowed part of a wood chip at daycare and it got stuck way in the back of his throat. He is fine, we just had to see a few doctors and wait for several hours for them to get it out and confirm that he didn't have anything else in his lungs. The next day he was back to his normal self. I have a feeling that won't be our last trip to the ER. H is so adventurous and has already figured out how to climb up on all the beds by himself! He wants to jump SO bad, he's just not quite there yet, maybe next month.

God is Good

I didn't want this week to go by without publicly praising God for this anniversary of sorts. 2 years ago this week we were in Iraq and were struggling to come to terms with the loss of our first pregnancy. I thought that was the end of our story... but God had a different ending. Two weeks later we would see the heart beat of our baby and find out that we had been pregnant with twins but still had a healthy baby. As I was watching H laugh and play this week I remembered those weeks 2 years ago and what God did in my heart through that time. Even if the story had ended as I expected instead of with a baby, God would still be just as good.
He has been showing me this again in new ways, that he has a Father's heart and longs to give us good things. In the same way that I love to make H happy and do things with him and for him that bring him delight, God has a heart even more like that towards each of His children. As I have been praying for other loved ones in my life who are going through difficult things, I have felt the need to pray that they would experience anew the Father's heart of goodness. The way that God enjoys each of us and longs to do good to us can get lost sometimes when we are in really painful circumstances. I don't claim to understand why God gives and takes away the things He does, but I am certain of His goodness towards us. So, today I just wanted to say, Thank you, Lord. Thank you, for your goodness to us 2 years ago when we were deep in grief and thank you, for your goodness to us today as we delight in H daily.

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7: 9-11