First off, here’s some cute stories/updates from the past couple whirlwind weeks:
Our kids love our new ward, so much so that the past two Sunday’s when we’ve pulled into the parking lot they clap and throw their arms up in the air and yell “Yay!!!”
During the sacrament on Sunday #LivyLu said “I want Jesus”, so Adam explained that Jesus is always with us in our heart (tapping his chest). So with her three-year-old logic she pulled her dress way out and looked down it then exclaimed “I can’t see Him!”
#OBoy popped out his sixth tooth in less than two weeks (my mama heart hurts so much watching him, but despite all the pain he still flashes tons of smiles). This morning I gave him some cold peaches in one of those mesh teethers (those things are GOLDEN!), he chewed it all up so I took the mesh thing away to put more peaches in it, he glared at me the whole time and then when I handed it back to him he gave a little grunt and snatched it out of my hand, the whole time still glaring at me.
#ClaraBelle has had a rough transition to the new place, but mainly because of teething (I thought she had popped out all those pearly whites, apparently she has more teeth than I thought), and ear tube troubles (this round of ear tubes has been ROUGH), but she is finally saying a few words! She says “tis-yoou” (thank you) “eee-sssss” (please), “a haaaa” (a hat), "hug", "want", and she occasionally surprises us with a few other words. But let the heavens open and the angels sing: my baby girl is finally talking and it is GLORIOUS!
#LivyLu was given a bike with training wheels from some friends whose daughter had outgrown it, and she picked that up fast, with basically no help from Adam and I. The girl can book it!
#OBoy is trying so hard to crawl, and he has the army crawl down! But he can't quite pick up his hands when on his knees, so he usually ends up launching himself forward, but doesn't cry because the end result (while painful) does get him closer to the toy that moments ago was just out of reach.
And this moment, it just melts my heart. We visited with my Grandparents, #OBoy was fussy (because of the whole teething thing), so my Grandpa took him aside and just rocked and sang to him. Like seriously, the cutest thing.
The last couple weeks have been crazy to say the least. With a stomach bug hitting us all days after moving, a collective eight teeth popping out between two children, #LivyLu upping her sass by threefold, and craziness at Adam’s work (oh the drama of the world of news), it's hard just trying to get settled. We are unpacked, but getting everything just how I want it is taking a long time seeing how the kids like to dump out drawers just as fast as I can pack them.
Through all the chaos of the last couple weeks, I’ve learned something… well, I’ve re-learned something that I’ve always known. God is always with me, and He really does care about the little things that I am going through.
The day that we moved it down poured, in fact there was about 10 minutes of straight hail (and I don’t mean the little stuff). The previous tenants left the apt pretty dirty and that night during my shower the shower head came off and the rest of my shower was like being washed down with a fire hose. God cares about that.
The unpacking, moving things from one cupboard to the other trying to find the perfect home for all our stuff, ordering more cupboards (because this apartment comes with very little storage) and then spending 5+ hours building it, staring at walls all day trying to imagine different arrangements then dreaming up all the perfect things that would look good on the wall but I dont have the budget to just drop everything and go buy it so I end up having to make do with what I have. God cares about all that stuff too.
The check up for #ClaraBelle on her ear tubes where I found out that most likely the reason she has been so extremely fussy and not sleeping the past couple weeks is due to her ears being so packed with ear wax and mucus (the teething definitely adds to this). The doctor than tells me that there are two things they can do to fix this: one being to pour drops of hydrogen peroxide in her ear twice a day for five days to eat all that gunk away (we will know this works when she starts screaming her head off in pain because it will sting a lot- ummmm don’t want to do that!), or to replace the ear tubes. But he doesn't want to do the second option till we have done the first. So basically twice a day I hold down my daughter (wrapping my legs and arms around her maneuvering a dropper ever so carefully to get the peroxide into her ears, the whole time she is kicking and screaming- not because it hurts, but just because she doesn't like it (can’t blame her)), hoping that this treatment is doing something, but also secretly hoping that today is not the day that we will reach the eardrum because I just don’t want to put my sweet baby girl through that kind of pain. Well, all of that craziness, God cares about that too.
When I stay up till three in the morning every night of the week doing all the rearranging, cabinet building, painting, decorating and whatnot that I wanted to do during the day but had to wait till the kids went to bed, and then I wake up tired and grumpy with kids yelling for breakfast and to go ride bikes outside (#LivyLu is OBSESSED with her new bike), God even cares about that (even though I knew what I was getting myself into by going to bed so late).
On Sunday we talked about how when we choose to not be prideful and think “I can do this on my own”, or that we are good enough without Him, or that He doesn’t have time for my little drama and all those lies that Satan tries to tell us, we are closing ourselves off from His help and His blessings.
You know, life gets hard. The past two years of finishing up college (debt free!), job hunting, apartment searching, dealing with rejections, birthing two beautiful additions to our family and then raising them was no easy feat! Then when we thought it was all over to be told “Hang in there, you will be in this stage of life for a while longer”, that was so hard (I wasn’t ready for that humbling experience). God allowed my family to go through some really hard and disappointing things, and it’s so easy to pull away and say “I can do better”; but in reality while He does let the bad stuff happen, He wants to be apart of it all and to bless us with little pockets of joy.
When Adam and I thought we were going to get a job with the City and it was going to be his dream career (and then again with the state), we thought that all the pain and heartache of all the rejections was worth it. And then we didn't get it, and He told us to hold on. But then just days later he blessed us with a new job (not a career job but a stepping stone to better jobs) and a new apartment that is double the size of our last place. And He did all that because He cares, and while being rejected from a dream job is hard and having to settle with a lesser job is equally hard, He created us a path to find happiness and He lessened the stress of the hard stuff we are going through.
While pinning my daughter down to pour peroxide in her ear is hard (even though I know the outcome is worth it), I don’t need to caring that hurting mama heart alone. Because my daughter is just as much His daughter and His heart hurts too. So why not let Him sit with me and hold us both through the hard stuff?
While dealing with a sassy three year old is nobody’s dream, He gives me little rays of sunshine in the storm of toddler tantrums, like when #LivyLu grabs #ClaraBelle’s hand and starts dancing while singing "London Bridges" or "If You’re Happy and You Know It". When she listens and helps put toys away during clean up time, when she says she hungry moments before bed and then sits down and actually eats the dinner that she very dramatically refused earlier (the one made with whole grain pasta and lots of veggies!), and when she rides her bike down the driveway yelling “Look at me mom!” with an ear to ear grin (I never knew that I could be so proud of her).
And then when I kneel down and pray at night and tell Him all about the way I want to decorate and the feel I want in my home but I just don't know how to accomplish it with the resources that I have, He lifts that load by helping me recenter my desires and remember that the most important thing to me is a home full of love and laughter. And then He blesses me with that ever single day (along with little spurts of inspiration of how to hang a picture, or how to arrange my decorations on the mantle- because if it’s a concern of mine, it’s a concern of His).
Sometimes I get so caught up in the day to day tasks, just making it through the day without looking like a complete disaster and trying to keep my cool through all the tears and tantrums. Sometimes I allow myself to think too many thoughts like “I want this”, “I need to do this”, “It’s all on me to get this done and make things perfect”, and I forget that I am nothing without Him (ok maybe I’m not nothing, but me without Him is definitely not a life that I want to live). But when I remember to keep God involved in my life, and let Him lift me through the hard times everything is just a little more bearable, life is just a little more sweeter and the days just don't seem quite so hard.
So I have one question for you:
Do you see the hand of God in your life?
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