"Making the decision to have a child–it’s momentous.
A year ago, today, this -It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone
and then she grew...
and grew...
and grew some more...
and now our infant is officially a toddler :) (she celebrated by learning how to climb onto the couch by herself)
It's amazing to me how she still looks like the same baby, and yet not at all. How she has grown so slowly, and yet so fast...
Anyway. A quick run down of lessons learned in the last year:
1) Best things about having a baby:
- Baby feet
- Baby snuggles
- Baby smiles
- Having a tangible, visible purpose for everything I do in a day
- Oxytocin
- An even more indissoluble bond between my husband and I
- Having someone to sing made up silly songs to
- Having a reason to go back and revisit baby books, childhood books, childhood joys
- Learning patience, flexibility
- Learning a thousand times over how to separate what matters from what doesn't
- Another soul in the world
- Introducing a child to the love of God!
2) Hard things about having a baby:
- Less time with husband
- Less sleep
- The rubber meets the road as far as growing in holiness through the marital vocation
- Transitions, changes, adjustments
- Cleaning the floor seemingly hundreds of times a day
- Trying to figure out when to shower
- The awful, sick to your stomach feeling when your baby gets hurt
The good outweighs the hard a million times over, and I feel so blessed to have a wonderful husband, a wonderful daughter, and the flexibility to be able to make a home for and with them. God has been so good - we can't wait to see what else He has in store for us, and most especially for LW!
"You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable." - Khalil Gibran
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6 comments:
Beautiful.
Truly.
Thanks for writing. I look forward with anticipation to each new entry :)
This was a winner.
What a lovely little girl. Her hair is so pretty :)
I adore the pic of you sleeping with your newborn. New mothers and new babies, ah, those first pictures are always so incredibly beautiful.
Happy Birthday, LW (a little late)!
LW, is a couch climber now. Yay, LW. So glad that she learned how to get down before she learned how to get up.
Thanks for the compliments, all - especially on the awful "I just gave birth to an 8 1/2 lb baby without pain killers, and I look like it" one :) But everyone else always says "aw, new mom!" when they see it.
What a sweet and lovely post. She is adorable, and I'm definitely in the "Aw, new mom!" camp on the photo. :)
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