Dear Jemima,
It is amazing to think that you are now one year old! When I think back to a year ago and the crazy time awaiting your arrival, I am all the more thankful for marking a full year of your presence in our home! You are such a bundle of fun, and we love you to pieces.
- You have a hilarious scrunched nose look, which sometimes means you can’t wait to be picked up, sometimes that you are not a fan of what you just ate, sometimes that you are feeling sooo happy…
- We came through a long month of illness, including a stomach flu, Covid, and your first ear infection, and it is wonderful to have you healthy and cheerful again! You are still dealing with some nasty diaper rash, but otherwise eating and sleeping well again.
- You often crawl around with a toy stuck in your mouth, which tends to look at it like a stogie. Hilarious.
- After our long stretch of being unwell and mostly at home, you developed an interest in other babies and much greater flexibility for being in the nursery. After such a long time away, our first Sunday back at church, you beelined over to some baby twins you saw in there hallway, like you were reunited with long lost kin. It was really sweet. And you had a great time in the nursery for your last night of Wednesday connection. Yay!
- You still pick up all the tiny things and put them in your mouth, but you are beginning to recognize when something is not edible, and then you will come to me with mouth half agape, so I can fish it out more easily.
- You are the sweetest snuggle bug… for a few minutes. You will let me cuddle and snuggle with you more than I remember doing with your brothers. You are also so curious to explore every place. You are always eager to be picked up and held, but after 30 seconds you are squirming to get down and look around again.
Favorite food: banana smoothie, cheerios
Favorite place: outside
Least favorite thing to wear: hat
Favorite person: mom, with dad and brothers as close runners up
Things you say: mamama, dadada, bababa (bump/bang/drum), ba! (Hi/bye)
- You stand and walk along the couch, but you're not quite venturing out on your own.
- You love to help me empty the dishwasher. This is normally during the time after supper when I am trying to load it. But one day, little miss, it will be most helpful!
- You love buttons, zippers, and strings.
As we celebrate a year of your life and I see you changing from a tiny bundle to a big chubby dumpling of a girl, there is some nostalgia and a sense of bittersweetness in the changing of seasons.
But I am reminded of the real joy and goal of motherhood ... of parenting ... of life in general. It isn't to be able to bottle up the sweetness of one specific season, as though, if captured, these fleeting moments could satisfy our souls. The joys, as well as the sorrows, leave us hungry for another day, precisely because we can't utterly absorb their happiness or hang onto the beauty of them.
But another day is coming. Oh, what a day it will be, when we are face-to-face with Joy Himself. When all the tears will be wiped away, and sorrow, sickness, and sin will be banished to their own grim demise. That is the day our hearts long for, when we will be home with our Savior and the dawn of a new morning will bring with it ever-expanding capacity for worship and fullness of joy.
It is a day that you were named in memory of ... a day of joy after sorrow and resurrection hope after the darkest nights of the soul. It is a day purchased by the gift of Christ Himself, for which we are sealed by God's own Spirit.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son." (Revelation 21:3-7)
Oh Jem, that's our big hope. And that is our great prayer for you--that you will be delighted by the mercies of God and that your hope will be fixed on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
That will be true delight, my dear, and I pray that we will enjoy it together forever.
With all my love,
Momma
