Saturday, May 12, 2012

Why yes, we can!

6 weeks. Feels like there should be birthday cake when you reach this point... it's been a long, awesome, grueling, eventful, tearful, most amazing 6 weeks.  Yesterday I thought back to being in the delivery room and meeting Eliaya in person.... the details are already a little fuzzy. Perhaps this is the "heaven-sent" amnesia required for Eliaya to have siblings, haha.


Praise the Lord Jarrod has finished up the semester! He does so well, especially since his study time has been dramatically intruded on. I know he's extremely thrilled to have a few weeks between semesters to just rest and fully enjoy being a dad. This marks the completion of our first year in seminary! 33 hours down.... 61 hours to go!

Sunday May 6th, two milestones occurred. That morning, while getting ready for church, I handed Eliaya off to Jarrod and he was dancing and singing to her. During a pause, she stared at his face and gave the biggest smile I've seen yet. We then had to reassemble Jarrod as he melted onto the floor. 'Baby girl... what ever you want... it's yours' was written all over his face.
The second was partaking in the parent-child dedication at church. It's a neat ceremony of sorts.... more for us than the children. It was an opportunity for Jarrod and I to publicly declare our intention to train Eliaya in the way she should go (Proverbs 22:6), to store the Word in her heart (Psalm 119:11), and to meditate on the Word as a family (Deut 6:7). What an honor, and what a weighty task. Praise Him that He does not leave us to do this on our own... but strengthens us with His Holy Spirit.  Here's a family pic from dedication service.



What else have we accomplished recently?
-Well, we are sleeping at nighttime! Everyone, Simba included, fares much better now that Eliaya sleeps. She's getting into a good routine of eat-play-sleep during the day and, most days, can be convinced that naps are not a threat to her existence. And days when she does nap, she'll sleep for 5-6 hours at night! Perhaps she listened during all those every hour and a half nighttime feedings when I told her this was not the way to get a sibling....
- Note to all... you CAN wash a car while wearing a baby. The neighbors will look at you funny... but E sure thought it was fun. she would get splashed in the carrier every time I sprayed down the car.
- Second note to all... you CANNOT leave the house without a second change of clothes.... never know when the biggest explosion you've had to date will come (ours was at the zoo this morning.... giraffe exhibit). Any pointers on washing car seat covers??

On a more serious note.... Jarrod and I have been deeply troubled by the recent posts in the media regarding homosexuality. Jarrod wrote a good response to it all on facebook, check it out. For all who claim to be Christians: we must call sin sin. There are parts of the Bible that are tough to swallow... definitely. But if you're unwilling to submit to Scripture despite your feelings about a subject, then don't call yourself a Christian. We must stop trying to straddle this middle-ground of claiming Christianity while holding our thoughts on a subject as gold, believing them over Scripture. (Romans 1, we cannot trust our thinking) It's time to closely examine what we believe and make a choice

Thanks for reading, have a blessed day!
~the Reeds