Wednesday, January 30, 2013
A Boy And His Book
See this precious guy? He is holding is current favorite book. I've only read it 4 times so far today. The funny thing is, we're not into Veggie Tales. He loves this book because there is a duck on every page giving him the excuse to "quack"!
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
To Me (When I'm Old),
Dear Melanie,
When you are 60 or 70, or hey, even 45 (not that 45 is old), please remember how tough it is to be in the throes of raising littles. Remember that you never, ever sleep all night long. Remember that the littles make messes faster than you can clean them up. Remember that you spent the majority of everyday wiping bottoms and noses, sweeping floors and folding clothes, cutting up food and reading the same book over and over again. Remember that you work really, really hard to show your children how to live God's way. Remember that you spend countless hours facilitating learning activities and opportunities for practicing good character. Remember that you had to discipline the same child, for the same thing, over and over and over again. Remember that you are being constantly touched, that someone small is always begging to be held and that the Moby or Ergo saved you often. Remember that you listen to cries, whines, and annoying music. Remember that you answered questions about the why and how come of everything imaginable. Remember that you feel spread too thin, that you feel exhausted, overwhelmed and like you're always failing somebody in some area of life. Remember that it's hard to balance God, hubby, kids, friends, housework and everything else on your "to do" list. Remember that you are pouring your heart and soul into your family, acting selflessly in most everything you do.
Don't forget the good stuff either, because there is plenty of that. This season of life is made up of hard work, but it's also full of giggles and snuggles and small people who love you more than anyone else in this world ever has. Those small people are gifts from God that fill your day with joy unspeakable, they are precious blessings that you absolutely adore, and they have helped make you into the person that you are. I could write on and on about the good, but that is not the purpose of this letter. Here's the most important thing I have to say to you: encourage others! When you see young mommies out and about, or read their posts on social media, encourage them! Don't be vain. Don't think that they have it easier than you did. Don't think that they aren't as good at parenting as you were. Remember what life with littles is like. Tell them that they are doing a good job. Find something good and comment on it. Tell them that you know how hard they work. Tell them you know how hard it is to serve selflessly. Affirm who they are...the mommy God chose for those kids. The best mommy in the world for those kids. This is pretty basic, but if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Don't ever say you didn't have any problems with your kids because you chose a better way to parent.
Your parenting is covered by grace. By God's grace. It is only by his grace that any child grows up to be a force for his kingdom. You are doing your best. So are most of the other mommies out there. Give them grace too. Love others. That's it for now...you've got a baby crying and a toddler that needs help in the bathroom! :-)
When you are 60 or 70, or hey, even 45 (not that 45 is old), please remember how tough it is to be in the throes of raising littles. Remember that you never, ever sleep all night long. Remember that the littles make messes faster than you can clean them up. Remember that you spent the majority of everyday wiping bottoms and noses, sweeping floors and folding clothes, cutting up food and reading the same book over and over again. Remember that you work really, really hard to show your children how to live God's way. Remember that you spend countless hours facilitating learning activities and opportunities for practicing good character. Remember that you had to discipline the same child, for the same thing, over and over and over again. Remember that you are being constantly touched, that someone small is always begging to be held and that the Moby or Ergo saved you often. Remember that you listen to cries, whines, and annoying music. Remember that you answered questions about the why and how come of everything imaginable. Remember that you feel spread too thin, that you feel exhausted, overwhelmed and like you're always failing somebody in some area of life. Remember that it's hard to balance God, hubby, kids, friends, housework and everything else on your "to do" list. Remember that you are pouring your heart and soul into your family, acting selflessly in most everything you do.
Don't forget the good stuff either, because there is plenty of that. This season of life is made up of hard work, but it's also full of giggles and snuggles and small people who love you more than anyone else in this world ever has. Those small people are gifts from God that fill your day with joy unspeakable, they are precious blessings that you absolutely adore, and they have helped make you into the person that you are. I could write on and on about the good, but that is not the purpose of this letter. Here's the most important thing I have to say to you: encourage others! When you see young mommies out and about, or read their posts on social media, encourage them! Don't be vain. Don't think that they have it easier than you did. Don't think that they aren't as good at parenting as you were. Remember what life with littles is like. Tell them that they are doing a good job. Find something good and comment on it. Tell them that you know how hard they work. Tell them you know how hard it is to serve selflessly. Affirm who they are...the mommy God chose for those kids. The best mommy in the world for those kids. This is pretty basic, but if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Don't ever say you didn't have any problems with your kids because you chose a better way to parent.
Your parenting is covered by grace. By God's grace. It is only by his grace that any child grows up to be a force for his kingdom. You are doing your best. So are most of the other mommies out there. Give them grace too. Love others. That's it for now...you've got a baby crying and a toddler that needs help in the bathroom! :-)
Monday, January 28, 2013
Zoo Trip!
It's over 70 degrees in January, so of course we had to take full advantage of this gorgeous day, and took a trip to the zoo. Look at these little loves! We had such a great time!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Our Heart For Adoption
We are adopting! This has been years in coming, but always a calling for our family. We have been foster parents in the past, and felt hopeful that a child placed with us would become ours forever, but it was not to be...and we are still trusting God with the unknown of that situation. The craziness of life and babies kinda took over, and we hadn't really focused a whole lot on moving in the direction of adoption until recently. We have had an active home study (approval by the state to adopt from foster care), for about a year, and had the opportunity to accept a little boy last fall, but the timing was not right for our family. I was very grieved over this, but my husband, in his wisdom knew that we needed to adjust to three under three before adding more to the clan. {Side note: I'm thankful that God gave me a wise husband. I would act in emotion more often than not, and he evens that out! Two is better than one!} I see all these profiles of kiddos needing families, and I honestly just want to take them all! Ha! Please don't think I'm super mom, because I'm NOT. There are days when I feel as though I cannot handle the three I have birthed. It is only by God's grace that I parent them and will be able to parent more. My husband has felt like this too...and struggled for a few months with whether adoption was even right for us to do. During that time God used his Word to really speak to Chris about His heart for adoption. Our favorite passage comes from Matthew 25:31-46, specifically these verses:
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:37-40
Wow! Who are the least of these? Children without parents to love and guide them definitely fit in this category! It is also clear in James, that as believers in Jesus Christ we are to care for these children:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
I know that it also seems so crazy to many in our culture to commit to raising children that are not biologically ours when we already have some that are. Even when I grocery shop with just three I get multiple comments about how "many" kids I have. It's insane what some people say, but that's another story for another day. I think that the last part of that verse above is just as powerful as the first part...to not allow ourselves to be polluted by the world...God's ways are so different than the ways of the world. It's so easy to get caught up in the activity (even good activity) that our culture denotes as normal, and be too busy to do the work that God has placed in his Word and in our hearts to do. Our God is awesome! Not only did he confirm his calling to us in multiple ways, but he also grew our hearts. We have now committed to adopt not just one child from foster care, but a whole sibling group. Our family will be growing exponentially this year, and we are so excited to have the opportunity to depend on God's grace even more!
Friday, January 18, 2013
Messes All Around
Please tell me I'm not the only one whose house looks like this from time to time? Okay, maybe most of the time?!! I have frequent tornados in the form of toddlers. Believe me, we clean up all day long. Most nights the toys are picked up, the pillows get returned to the couch, and all is well and good. But there are the occasions where I may or may not leave some stuff undone....I'm slowly overcoming my OCD tendencies I think! Ha! Overcoming is the wrong word. Ignoring is probably a better choice. I'd still love for everything to be perfectly spotless, but that would leave no time for snuggles, and those are way more important!
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Social Media
I really like Facebook...probably too much. Every time I open that app there are minutes sucked out of my day that I wish I hadn't lost. There are posts that I am genuinely glad to have read, but there are more still that take up mental energy I'm pretty sure I could use to accomplish something infinitely better. Then there is Twitter, Pinterest, and the many other networks I get invitations for but have refused to join. Can we live without social media? The obvious answer is yes, I mean it is pretty non-essential to our physical well being...but what about our emotional and social lives?
I did the Loving Well study by Beth Moore a few years ago, and she states that culturally we are all spread about a mile wide but only a quarter of an inch deep. That statement resonates with me so much! Am I the only one that feels this way? I truly believe I know a lot about people (via Facebook newsfeed), but how many people do I really know? I would so much rather be a mile deep and less wide! Where do I start? Does anyone have time to be my (real) friend?! I sound pretty pathetic! Truth is, I do have a couple of close friends that I commune with regularly, but even time with them is shorter than I'd like. In part, I can attribute that to the season of life I am living in...with so many little loves just the daily care of them dictates much of my time. I long to have more community. I long to have relationships with others that presents as full sentences, not as punctuation marks.
In Beth Moore's (love her!) newest book she also suggests that a large part of the insecurity women feel is due to media. I'm shouting "Amen!" to that one! I struggle with insecurity without social media, but then when I log on and see one Pinterest project after another that good mommies do with their kids, or see in my Facebook newsfeed that someone is celebrating the potty training success of their one year old (when I just accomplished that with my three year old), or I see a picture on Twitter of the all-natural-homemade-meal-cut-into-cute-shapes another person is providing for their child's lunch (while mine had cheese, apples and pretzels) it all translates into a big fat "I'm a failure" moment. WOW!
So, enough for now, but these are my ramblings about social media, as well as why I am considering banning them from my future forever! I actually tried that and felt very uninformed about life in general...is that normal? Anyone else give this a go? Thoughts???
I did the Loving Well study by Beth Moore a few years ago, and she states that culturally we are all spread about a mile wide but only a quarter of an inch deep. That statement resonates with me so much! Am I the only one that feels this way? I truly believe I know a lot about people (via Facebook newsfeed), but how many people do I really know? I would so much rather be a mile deep and less wide! Where do I start? Does anyone have time to be my (real) friend?! I sound pretty pathetic! Truth is, I do have a couple of close friends that I commune with regularly, but even time with them is shorter than I'd like. In part, I can attribute that to the season of life I am living in...with so many little loves just the daily care of them dictates much of my time. I long to have more community. I long to have relationships with others that presents as full sentences, not as punctuation marks.
In Beth Moore's (love her!) newest book she also suggests that a large part of the insecurity women feel is due to media. I'm shouting "Amen!" to that one! I struggle with insecurity without social media, but then when I log on and see one Pinterest project after another that good mommies do with their kids, or see in my Facebook newsfeed that someone is celebrating the potty training success of their one year old (when I just accomplished that with my three year old), or I see a picture on Twitter of the all-natural-homemade-meal-cut-into-cute-shapes another person is providing for their child's lunch (while mine had cheese, apples and pretzels) it all translates into a big fat "I'm a failure" moment. WOW!
So, enough for now, but these are my ramblings about social media, as well as why I am considering banning them from my future forever! I actually tried that and felt very uninformed about life in general...is that normal? Anyone else give this a go? Thoughts???
Monday, January 7, 2013
Friday, January 4, 2013
Blog Beginnings...
Well, I've decided to dive into the world of blogging...well, tiptoe might be a better way to describe my venture. I'm not sure how well I'll keep up with it, nor how often or by whom it will be read, but I thought I'd give it a try. I guess my main goal is to share our lives with our family and friends using technology for easier access. It seems like everyone is so busy that spending time together is something that rarely happens, and often, when it does, the times are so far apart that the majority of the conversation is focused on "catching up". There are a lot of things that we do, that our children say, that we take pictures of, even decisions that we make that don't get shared with others due to a lack of interaction...but, we'd really like to share our lives more, thus the blogging! My goal is to post once a week, and that's pretty lofty given the fact that there are very few hours every week that I don't have someone small attached to me! I'm glad that you've decided to follow our story, and I hope that somewhere in all of my musings you find something encouraging, entertaining, or at least enjoyable to read!
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