Dear Jemima,
Here we are, one last post before you turn one!
So many new tricks this month!
- Your little shuffle-crawl has definitely picked up speed, and you are a master at slipping under the radar into the dangerous/forbidden locations when our attention is elsewhere. You keep us all on our toes, Miss Jem!
- You continue to find, grab, and eat all the tiny things. However, we have drawn a line that Momma's computer cords are off-limits, and you definitely remember that. You will crawl over, look at the cords, look at me, and think about it for a couple minutes. Most of the time you resist temptation and find something else of interest!
- You stand! You will pull yourself up on just about anything, and so your range of reach has expanded significantly. I love watching you peering about the world from your full height. You're such a cute little dumpling.
- In the category of "keeping Mom on her toes": on a recent Tuesday at homeschool co-op, I put you down for a morning snooze in the coat closet, per our normal routine. You nap in your carseat, with one of the straps buckled to keep you from sliding out. But according to the dear nursery ladies (who come to get you up when you awaken), you decided to make your own exit from the carseat, and they discovered you sitting up and waiting for them at the door! (We have thus graduated to hauling a pack-n-play to co-op.)
- You're putting away much larger quantities of cereal now. But you still gag on Cheerios... I think you're close though!
- Though you have been doing well in the nursery on Sunday mornings, our Wednesday nights have been rocky. Twice you cried yourself to sleep in the nursery during Bible study. But the last time, they said you were happy most of the time, so we are making progress!
- You have lots of big teeth! I think there are 6, but I could be off...
- You sleep through the night! Dad decided it was time to help you on your way, so I slept with the white noise machine right by my head for 3 nights (it's like sleeping next to a jet engine), and lo and behold, you slipped into a fabulous pattern! I put you down between 7 and 8pm, feed you sometime between 5 and 6am, and then you sleep until sometime between 7 and 8am. What a delightful gift!
- You understand lots of words ("Let's go see Daddy!" "Where are the boys?" "Bye-Bye!"), and you say, "Mamama" and "Da" and "Bye." Clever little lady.
- When we get up in the morning and go find Daddy and the boys in the family room, where they are reading the Bible story with Dad, you start to kick, kick, kick those sweet chubby legs! It's one of my favorite things!
- We have been having a very intense time with a gastrointestinal bug around here. You came down with it on Wednesday, and it was a sad, sad time! But in the Lord's mercy, you finally could tolerate sips of pedialyte just when we were on the brink of heading to the ER. You also weathered some horrible diaper rash and diarrhea. This is part of parenting in a broken world that is just sad and hard. But there are also so many mercies... Washing machines. Pedialyte. A&D ointment. Doctors. A growing immune system. A new morning after a long night. A big toothy smile after sad days (see below).
As mentioned, it has been a stretch of intermittent stomach ailments here, which is always a trial. The unpredictable nature of the germs ... the hard stop to plans ... the amazing quantities of laundry ... these tend to generate a strong reaction of dismay in my heart. On one hand, we could say that is a natural response to difficulty.
But on the other hand, God brought James 1:2 to mind very strongly this week (when the 2nd-of-4-so-far child threw up).
Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)
Lacking in nothing. Perfect. Complete. These are descriptions of a condition, a character that I would like to possess. But in the wise and unexpected providence of God, the path to that kind of heart leads straight through a whole lot of things that I would never choose. The things that fit under the category "various trials." Things like puking children and terrible diaper rash and disappointed plans.
This is when the concrete, tangible experience of life jars against my stated beliefs and reveals where my faith hasn't yet filtered down into the cracks and crevices of life. But God is also good to let kernels of faith spring up there in response to His word. To give opportunities to talk with you kids about my own struggle to trust God and to take God's help for joy in hard times.
I pray, little Jem, that the gospel will take concrete form in our hearts and home as we practice believing God's promises when it doesn't feel very good. I pray that you and your brothers will get your roots sunk deep into the sovereign goodness of God, so that you will be able to weather storms and stand firm all throughout your life, no matter the ups and downs and twisty turns you encounter.
We know that God is able to bring good out of bad. In fact, that is the reason why we named you Jemima. After all the inscrutable, heart-breaking suffering Job experienced, God showed His power, His sovereignty, and His generous goodness, and He gave the gift of a little baby named Jemima (plus her many brothers and sisters). That was a little foretaste of the way He would turn death on its head through His own Son's demolishing the stronghold of Satan and sin and breaking the chains of death forever.
We are just one week from celebrating Easter--marking the eternal victory of Jesus over everything that sin has broken and stained in this world and in our hearts. He is risen, little daughter! He is risen indeed.
Let's keep hoping in Him,
Momma
