A Year Ago....

I wrote this post on December 21, 2008. I was six months pregnant at the time, and we had just moved to Austin three weeks before. I never published it because I thought it was just too cheesy, but looking back, I will never forget this moment, so I don't care if it IS cheesy, I'm posting it.
OH, and did I mention I was pregnant? You can just hear the hormones raging through the paragraphs....

Sunday was not a good day. I woke up feeling big, and tried to pick a fight with Andrew over how ugly I looked in a black moo moo that Motherhood Maternity called a "shirt" (he thought I looked pretty, I told him he was WRONG and possibly LYING).

Went to visit a new church, where a very sweet lady told me I looked like I was "about to pop." You must be due any day! ("Uhhhh, NO, I'm not, but thanks for announcing me the winner of the fight with my husband over whether this shirt makes me look even huger than I thought!!")

Looked at more houses in our price range....tired, so tired of the fixer-uppers that we can barely afford to buy and definitely can't afford to fix up.

Family issues brewing in the back of my mind...wondering if God is on top of these situations as they are getting worse and not better.

Drove to Starbucks and lept out of the car to go to the bathroom while Andrew went through the drive-thru to get coffee (he seemed to think the ten car wait was better than parking the car and going inside). I must have had the fussiest, most petulant look on my face as I stormed back outside, walked past the ten car pile-up and plopped into the car:

It's freezing out here...grumble, grumble, grumble.

I want a house...grumble, grumble, grumble.

I'm gettin' spider veins...grumble grumble grumble.

Well, when we got to the window, the perky Starbucks employee informed us that the man in front of us had paid for our coffee and doughnut treat. "why???" I asked. She shrugged and said, "he just said, 'Merry Christmas' to you guys and that was it."

Immediately the grumbles turn to tears as I realized how hard my heart was and how someone in the drive-thru clearly saw this and still managed to show kindness to me in my sinful state. This is what Jesus did for us! Loving us in the middle of our mess...this small act of kindness caused both Andrew and I to stop our downward spiral of cranky despair and we prayed, giving thanks, asking for forgiveness and provision and wisdom in our time of need.

So there you have it...my slightly cheesy but very real moment of Christmas cheer...doesn't it make you want to covertly buy someone a cup of coffee? ;)

A glimpse!

Tonight Andrew and I left the kids with Nana and Papa and went to The Oasis, a restaurant on Lake Travis. In the evenings, you can sit on the deck with a margarita and watch the beautiful sunset.

The best part of the night is when the sun finally slips out of sight: a bell is rung and everyone applauds. What a joyful feeling it was to just praise God with a group of people in a restaurant. Do they know they were praising God? I don't know. But we are created to praise him; his creation inspires up to do so. I think heaven must be something like The Oasis, only a million times more magnificent.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

Psalm 19:1-5

Football season is here!

Rhetorical Questions and Two year-olds

This week our memory verse is Isaiah 40:28.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

But Isaac thinks that I am actually asking him these questions! So our memorizing time sounds like this:

Me: Do you not know? (usually he repeats after me at this point)

Isaac, wide-eyed: No!

Me: Have you not heard?

Isaac, wider eyed: Noooo!

Me: the LORD is the ever lasting God

Isaac: yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!

Dear Judah

Cubby,
You have been in the world for four months and fourteen days now, and you are like a firecracker: mighty fine to look at, but super sensitive and easy to set off. I don't know what you are so mad at, but I hope you forgive and forget about it soon. We have endured hours and hours and hours of crying--mostly from you, but some of it was me, too. It has been a frustrating time for the family. Sometimes your big brother will cover his ears and say, "NO THANK YOU BABY JUJU CRYING!!!!" and then he will start crying as well. You can imaging how overwhelming it is to have both babies wailing at the same time!

You are skinny and long, with a will of iron--you started trying to stand up long before you should have developmentally. You have a fair complexion and a Stork Bite in between your eyes that gets darker when you are upset. Your tongue, which is one of your loveliest features, has a line down the center and you love to stick it out when you are pleased with yourself. Other than those features, you look just like your brother did when he was a baby--small shoulders, long arms, pointy Spock ears, hands and feet that are sweaty and big. (Those features are unfortunately from my side of the family--can you believe it?)

Truly the Lord led us to your name: how could we ever have know what a lion you would be??? Even when you are making gleeful noises, it sounds like you are growling! But when you smile, everything around me goes away; I forget the sadness and the difficultly of the past four months. I stop talking to whoever is around and immediately smile back. You really are a beautiful and perceptive baby. You see all things that go on around you, and you stare deeply into my eyes when you are happy and squeal with delight. Everything you do is done with vigor and gusto.

My prayer for your life is that God would take your passion, your great energy, your anger, your vision, and make you an instrument of His glory. that you would "fear the LORD your God...walk in all his ways...love him..serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD's commands and decrees."

I pray against you receiving any of the diseases and sicknesses which have caused suffering in our families, but I also realize that suffering brings us closer to Christ, who suffered, bled and died for the sins of the world.

I really hope that you and Isaac will be the best of friends, and that you will encourage one another to good works all the days of your lives.

You are a wonderful blessing and I will love you forever.
Mommy

P.S.--When you get married and your wife has a baby or two, be kind and compassionate to her as you both figure out your new roles, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you, because for some reason, having a screechy baby brings out the worst in a tired wife and mommy. Be nice to her. Be nice to ME if I'm still around--haha. ;)

I'm smiling here because I have no idea that my upcoming c-section will hurt for months after you are brought into the world...and it's kind of nice to stand next to someone who is shorter than I am.

I'm smiling in this picture because I have no idea that when we bring you home that night, you will scream so long and so loud that we will call the hospital because we are scared something is wrong...the first question the nurse will ask is, "this is your first baby, isn't it?"

Here I am full of joy because you have received the sign and seal of the covenant, and I know that our momentary frustrations are trivial compared to teaching you about Christ Jesus and the riches of his kingdom!!