Joys of Parenting

I was recently out to dinner with some friends who don't have kids. Corrie and I were talking about how tough it has been getting used to life with two beautiful and straight crazy little girls. They commented that hearing all the difficulties doesn't quite "sell" the idea of parenthood to them. That conversation got me thinking ... though parenting is challenging (and will only get worse as the girls get older!), there are many amazing, joyful and fulfilling moments too. Below are just a few from the past few months.

• As Ania nearly lost her mind during a drive yesterday, Corrie turned around and held her hand. Ania quickly squeezed Corrie's finger and held on for dear life ... and instantly stopped crying. A simple touch brought peace to the car. Eva then proceeded to sing a lullaby to "help" Ania fall asleep. Priceless.
  
• Ania smiles. BIG smiles. I could stare into her eyes for days.

• Every single day I come home from work I can see Corrie feeding Eva dinner through the kitchen window. As soon as my car door shuts Eva erupts with excitement because Daddy's home. There's no greater feeling then the shrill of excitement that comes from her mouth as I walk through the door.
  
  
  
  
  
• Eva put on her own underwear. Awesome.

• In December we went to Disneyland. Eva is a daughter after my own heart ... she excitedly rode the Matterhorn as a 2 year old! She gave huge hugs to every character she met and chased Goofy down the street in Toontown. Ania was a champ and rode quietly in her Baby Bjorn like it was the best ride in the place.

• I was trying to choose a show for Eva to watch and asked her what she wanted to learn about. She is eating up the ABC's right now, so I assumed she'd want to watch a show about that. Instead, she quietly responded, "I want to learn about God." Slays me.
  
• Watching all our friends, babysitters, and family members love our little girls just as much as we do brings joy to my heart. It's fun getting to do life together as one big extended family!

Though everyday isn't a walk in the park, it is these moments, memories ... these glimpses of grace and goodness ... that can bring sanity and joy to the soul.

May these thoughts be an encouragement to reflect upon similar moments in your own life today.

broke bone bob

i'm typing with one hand. don't ever go running at night. you'll break bones. the past several weeks have been some of the fullest and chaotic ones we've experienced.

on october 4th, we celebrated eva's 1st birthday. she loves yelling da-da a hundred times a day. it melts my heart each time, as well as stokes the competitive fire within me ... the word ma-ma has just come on the scene and is usually accompanied by crying. eva is a gregarious walker and talker and has made friends with every living being on our street as she marches up and down all the sidewalks. we also had her heart checkup. since she had another svt episode in august, the doc wants to keep her on meds for another 6 months. she has become a little addict. not only does she love the candy taste, she hoardes all the syringes ... they have become friends to her.

in mid-october, all three of us got away for the weekend at flood's college retreat. this is one of the highlights of my job as we get to spend some meaningful time away with each other, some amazing students and god. we taught an all day seminar on vision and values. it was nice to press the pause button in life and evaluate how we're doing and where we're headed. got some needed clarity on some difficult decisions and returned refreshed and ready to take on the world.

the very next day i broke my finger. got a cast put on my left hand. and guess who's left handed?!

the day after that, corrie finds out she's going into arbitration, the most demanding part of her job.

she worked two 70 hour weeks. i nursed a broken bone back to health, and all our hopes and dreams got upended for a couple of chaotic weeks.

despite everything, we decided to continue to train for our 1/2 marathon (happening next week) and .... drumroll please .... decided to buy a house!! i feel a little crazy writing those words, but everything kind of fell into place. we had been casually looking for a while and finally found one that had nearly everything we're looking for. it's a few blocks west of sdsu in this great little neighborhood. definitely a house in line with our values and a great one to raise our family. we hope to get the keys mid-december.

we also got to celebrate our favorite holiday in a mildly inappropriate costume ... siegfried & roy (with our white tiger of course!).

some learnings of the last month?

receiving help is difficult, but proves our need for each other. from opening a water bottle to changing a diaper ... i've needed help. i don't like asking for it. don't like feeling weak or inadequate. yet we aren't made to go through life alone. i need you and you need me. something beautifully modeled by god who exists as a trinity. good stuff. who wants to help us move? :)

we can only do what we can do. this is a tough one and an obvious one. corrie and i take on too much, but at the end of the day, we can only do what is physically possible to do. god gives us everything we could ever need ... just gotta keep breathing.

we need to sleep more. seriously. the past three nights, we have gone to bed early and gotten nearly 8 hours. amazing how big of a difference this makes! pretty soon we're going to start eating dinner at denny's at 4 in the afternoon. man we're getting old!

I love putting food in my ears!

Queen of the Patch

It takes about 20 pictures for Eva to look at the camera. We gave up on the family portrait pretty quickly.

Siegfried & Roy ... featuring a rare white tiger!

Yum!