The Diamond is Coming!!

(Google Image)

    

      I love the honesty that shows up on the posts of Parakaleo.  Just moms trying to sort this “mom” thing out.  It is often reflected within the posts of how we get into a routine with our parenting.  Each day seems like the last.  We even can find ourselves having a little pity party and licking our wounds about what “isn’t” or equally disheartening about what “is.”

     I have been reminded of the analogy of our oldest as she was waiting for her proposal from her Prince Charming.  Our son in law had come to both my husband and I individually and asked permission to marry our firstborn.  However, he is a planner and had to get all the circumstances just right. 

     Michelle got ready every day thinking with each meeting of her boyfriend, she might come home with a beautiful ring, representing his love and commitment to their lives together.  As one day ran into the next, Michelle got anxious and disappointed.  She came home day after day disheartened that Cole had not proposed. 

     I have the honor as her mom to hear exactly what she was mulling over.  She would say things like, “maybe he doesn’t really love me” or “if he can’t make up his mind, maybe we should break up.”  My responses had to be casual and yet try to get her to see she didn’t know the whole picture.

     As I have shared their story you know she and Cole did get engaged and married.

The point is this…the diamond ring was coming!

    As we parent we may feel like nothing is changing. The children continue to argue, the bills stack up, you are spending more time in the pediatrician’s office than you do in the park.  You are making meals, taxing kids…

    Can I encourage you moms with this thought…The Diamond is coming!  It may seem “late” or you may question “His” love.  Don’t give up! Don’t break up! Don’t even question His love!  The Diamond is coming!

Galatians 6: 9

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.

(The Message)

     

"I'm so Happy" or not?

Have you seen the YouTube of the little guy who is opening his gifts on Christmas?

He opens a gift and it is a video game, he asks his parents about another (obviously more desired game.) Then he opens the gift he wanted and he starts balling and saying, “I’m so happy!”

How did your children respond this Christmas?  It is a joyous thing when our children are “so happy.”  However, it wasn’t the case with one of ours this Christmas.  Both my husband and I remember a Christmas and birthdays were we were disappointed. Yes, it is certainly the “American Way.”

You ask for certain things, expect certain things, and then it’s the big let down.  Our youngest was looking for an IPhone.  I had told her throughout the season she would not be getting one. On Christmas morning, her friends photographed on Instagram (yeah, social media) their gifts.  It’s true, they photographed in “loot piles” all they had gotten, and many of them put the shinning crown of an IPhone, right in the center.

Image found at Pinterest

It’s hard to imagine her waffle iron and jazz shoes didn’t take the center spot of her “loot picture.” But to my daughter’s chagrin they didn’t!  

Such hard lessons we have to learn (and teach.)  Both Greg and I reminisced privately of disappointing holidays, when our expectations weren’t met.  It’s a shamefully embarrassing truth.

As my husband opened the last gift, her absence in the room was keenly felt.  She had quietly left the room and I found her on her bed.  As she cried her emotions out, she was disappointed.  The disappointment had different facets.  First, she was saddened she didn’t get what she really wanted. It was salt to her wound that all her other friends had gotten IPhones.  She was saddened at her self.  Saddened she was disappointed and saddened that she even felt disappointed.

          It’s one thing to be disappointed, its quite another to realize you should be grateful for what you have received.  Although, I understood her disappointment with what she didn’t receive, I was so proud of her for recognizing on her own, that she should be grateful for what she had gotten.  

I am sorry she didn’t get what she wanted, but I am ever so grateful to watch her grow in His Spirit, and recognize her need to submit to Him. I’m praying she will remember it is natural to feel disappointment, but God’s Spirit will give her satisfaction and contentment.

Philippians 4: 12 – 13, “…I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

Remembering Moses' Mama

  This beautiful post is written by my friend, Julie. It is an update on her sweet little guy who just turned five months old. You can follow her story (and receive all types of other goodies--craft ideas, recipes, etc.) at www.happyhomefairy.com. I hope you enjoy reading it. It is such a wonderful reminder that our children and our times are in God's hands.


                                           Yesterday did not go as I had planned.

Three weeks ago (right about the time we found out the Happy Baby didn’t have a fatal genetic disorder), we decided to stop using the feeding tube. Knowing that there was not a disability helped me to see that most of the Happy Baby’s feeding issues are aftermath from our 3+ month hospital stay.

As soon as we took him off the tube the poor thing lost 5 ounces almost instantly.

I spent a lot of time in the fetal position trying not to have panic attacks that my precious little boy was going to waste away into a bag of bones.

I fretted about whether or not I was doing the right thing, but yet found myself stubbornly determined not to use the tube ever again.

Then one night when I crept into his room to quietly trick him into taking a bottle while asleep, he guzzled 6 ounces in less than 15 minutes!

Practically a world record!

From that point on I watched as (miraculously) the Happy Baby got better and better about taking his bottles.

I started texting pictures of empty Dr. Brown’s to my mom or the Happy Hubby at work because I was so excited about his progress.

Not every feed is awesome. He still has quite a bit of reflux going on. I’ve even cut dairy and gluten (*sob to no more late night ice cream binges*) from my diet to see if it might help – and while it’s improved, I can tell that some bottles hurt more than others and some bottles are still unbelievably rough. But, on the whole, he is taking in better volumes.

I began praying that God would pack the pounds on the Happy Baby. Use the milk that I am frantically trying to provide to turn our son into a little Dough Boy.

I started praying for a specific weight to be attained by the Happy Baby’s next GI doctor appointment so that I could prove to the medical staff that our baby didn’t need his feeding tube anymore and would they please take it out.

I figured that God wanted the Happy Baby’s feeding tube out as much as I did.

Well, that GI appointment was yesterday.

And as I said, it did not go as I had planned.

For starters, what I was hoping would be a party around the scale, ended up being a HUGE disappointment.

3 weeks. Only 3 ounces gained.

Then the doctor came in and informed us that not only had the Happy Baby dropped from the 25th percentile for weight down to the 8th, but also that we were nuts to think we could take his tube out so soon.

I tried to stand my ground in our little meeting and push my “I just believe he’s going to be fine” agenda on the doctor, but he held up the facts.

It seems I am a bit in denial that our sweet Happy Baby still very much has some obstacles to overcome.

Instead of getting the tube out we must wait another 6 weeks and try some things to boost the Happy Baby’s weight because clearly my breast milk alone is not cutting it (big disappointment).

I am tempted to quietly push ice cream through the tube! Or maybe invite Paula Deen to move in with us and lavish her buttery goodness on our boy.

Needless to say, I left the doctor’s feeling incredibly discouraged.

I had walked in feeling so sure that we’d be scheduling a tube-removal surgery and we could put this whole season behind us.

Somehow I had managed, once again, to form my own idea of our ‘happily ever after’ and forget that sometimes (okay, often times) God’s ‘happily ever afters’ are quite different than ours.

Sometimes He allows hard things. Sometimes the perfect little ideal I dream up is just the opposite of God’s plans.

Sometimes there are babies with feeding tubes for extended amounts of time.

Sometimes there are children with serious disorders and diseases.

Sometimes there is even death.

Sometimes the journey to His ‘happily ever after’ doesn’t feel quite so fairy-tale-ish.

These are the thoughts I have wrestled with lately, trying desperately to hold on to my Pollyanna Complex – believing that God will perform a miraculous and instant healing in our baby – in all hurting babies for that matter.

But the truth remains – sometimes He doesn’t.

And that is a hard pill to swallow.

I was reminded recently of Moses’ mother.

In a time when the king had ordered all of the Israelite baby boys to be killed, Moses’ mother wrapped her baby up, laid him in a basket, and sent him floating down the river.

She put her baby in a basket – and trusted that God would deliver him.

That certainly doesn’t sound like the ideal situation to me! I’d be paralyzed with fear at the thought of the basket overturning or an angry alligator looking for its next meal!

But this is what God asks us to do.

Put our babies ‘in the basket’.

Surrender our hopes, dreams, and desires for them – knowing that God’s hopes, dreams, and desires for them (and ultimately, us) are better.

Little did Moses’ mother know that in her obedience to surrender her baby to the basket, God would lead that basket straight to the palace where her baby was found by the princess, herself, and given a life of royalty.

Not exactly what Moses’ mother had in mind. I would think she had prayed for a way to keep her baby in her care forever, begging the Lord for another way.

But God chose differently. And her son lived. Because of her obedience he lived to lead an entire nation of people out of slavery.

So the tube is staying in a little bit longer. And when I say a little bit, I hope and still pray it will be a little bit, but ultimately it’s up to God and not my own stubborn determination or endless hours of pumping.

The Happy Hubby commented to me as we left the hospital yesterday that our hearts should be so surrendered to God’s timing for the Happy Baby that when it does come time to get the tube out, we will be pleasantly surprised.

I’ll bet Moses’ mother was pleasantly surprised when she ended up being the woman the princess called on to nurse her new found baby in the basket.

Photo Credit

Yes, Mommy Warriors out there, let us put our babies in the basket.

Because in that obedience, we can be confident that God will lead them (and us!) to the palace.

Thank you always for your prayers and support.

You’re the best.

-Julie

“But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hand…”

Psalm 31:14-15a