A Moment of God's Grace

This past Sunday was communion Sunday at church. The first Sunday of the month always is. This was the first time we've been there for communion Sunday in a while. I was glad to see in the bulletin that children come back from children's church to be with their families for communion, but I wasn't sure how it would go with Caleb. First of all, he was in one of his strange moods. He was being obstinant as all get out one minute and clinging to me to snuggle the next minute.

The sermon series this month is on grace. As I listened to the sermon, little did I know that I would experience a moment of grace during communion.

When the children came back into the sanctuary, Caleb came over and climbed up in my lap.

The pastor offered the beautiful words of communion:
"This is my body, broken for you. Take, eat. Do this in remembrance of Me.
This is my blood, shed for you. Take, drink. Do this in remembrance of Me."

Then we filed out of our seats. Caleb was holding my hand and Rudy was standing behind us. When we got to the serving station, I told Caleb to do what I did and gave him a piece of bread from the basket. I dipped my bread into the cup and he followed suit. The server whispered to him, "Jesus loves you." My eyes filled up with tears and my heart filled up with grace.

She was right. The server who doesn't know my child knew that Jesus loves him because she knows that He loves all children - even the ones who don't sit quietly in their seats during the opening hymns, even the ones who make faces at the people in the pew behind them, even the ones whose Daddies have to take them out for a couple of minutes because they are fiddling with hymnals and making noise. The symbolism and meaning of Christ's body and blood given for me and, even more, for Caleb, was overwhelming in that moment. God's grace was evident. Caleb doesn't understand what happened in that moment. He doesn't yet understand the meaning of what I'm sure he thought was a really strange little snack at church. He won't understand those things for a long time, but that doesn't make the practice any less meaningful for our family to share.

As we took our seats and I fought back tears of emotion, I held my child in my lap and thanked God for the gift of my son and His.

Yes, Jesus loves Caleb. He loves me too. He loves me even when I'm impatient, even when I'm unkind, even when I get angry and, amazingly, even when I'm unfaithful to Him. God's grace is evident everyday. I just have to open my eyes to see it.

Our Final Gameday of 2009

Whew - what a weekend! We thought we were going to have to sell our Razorback game tickets (again) for this week's game against South Carolina, because our babysitting plans fell through. We couldn't think of anyone else that we could ask to babysit and we really couldn't afford to pay anyone for the 7 hours that would be involved, so I posted the tickets for sale on Facebook. I was shocked and so grateful when one of my fabulous co-workers offered to keep Caleb for free. God bless her for saving our final gameday of the year!

Chad and Ronni spent the night with us on Friday and Caleb had his first taste of giving up his big kid room so that it could be our guest room. He did okay with it because he got to sleep on his Lightning McQueen blow-up mattress in our room. I thought I was going to kill him before he finally went to sleep, but once he settled down, we were all fine.

We got up Saturday morning and hit the ground running. Rudy and I took Caleb to Bella Vista to spend the day with Mrs. Kat and her son, Luke. They had a great time and even though Kat won't let me pay her or even pay her back, I am indebted to her. Rudy and I made it to Fayetteville and found a parking spot that didn't require us to hike uphill before or after the game. (This was important for a woman who is 27 weeks pregnant and a man who pulled a hamstring playing softball last week.) We walked over to say hi to the Lyons crew at their tailgate spot and then made our way to the stadium to meet the Wisemans. They graciously offered us tickets in their luxury box again, so we were able to sell our tickets on our way into the stadium. (Yet another bonus!) The weather was beautiful, the game was great and we ended up beating South Carolina.

There is another game next week against Troy, but we aren't going because it's opening weekend of deer season and my family is all going to deer camp. Yep - we have become THOSE PEOPLE. The rest of the games are either away games or are being played in Little Rock, so we don't have tickets.

After the game we drove back up to Bella Vista to get Caleb. Kat said that the boys had a great time together and that they went for a hike at Tanyard Creek and had lunch at Chick-Fil-A. Caleb must have been in Heaven! He was tired, though. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, but as soon as Rudy laid him in his bed, he was wide awake and ready to go again.

I spent Friday evening Christmas shopping. I always like to have my shopping done before Thanksgiving if possible. It just seems like I enjoy the entire Holiday season more that way. I managed to get all of our gifts except for one and that one isn't available in Rogers. I'll have to get it the next time we go to Fayetteville. While I was out, I also made a wishlist for Caleb to share with his grandparents. I got home about 9:15 Saturday night and I was worn out! Somehow, though - I managed to work on the photo book that I always give to family for Christmas. I just need the November and December pictures and it's ready to be ordered! Hopefully, being proactive about Christmas shopping will make Thanksgiving and Christmas just that much more enjoyable this year!

Belly Dancing

You know what's stranger than feeling an unborn child moving inside of your belly? SEEING an unborn child moving inside of your belly. While it is incredibly cool and one of those experiences in pregnancy that I cherish and enjoy - it is still really strange to see my belly move on its own. It happened tonight for the first time with Nola. I remember Caleb kicking so hard one time that the TV remote fell off my belly.

I think Caleb may have felt her move on Sunday. He was sitting in what's left of my lap watching TV when I felt Nola do a little moving around. Caleb turned around and looked at me, then looked at my belly with an odd look on his face. He didn't say anything, but he did get up and move. How do you explain that to a 3-year-old? I didn't even try.

Rudy still hasn't felt Nola move. She does it all the time and I can feel her pretty often when I put my hand on my belly. For some reason, though, when Rudy tries to feel her movements, she stops. She's either so calmed by her daddy that she doesn't move when he's near or she's so stubborn that she doesn't want to put on a show for anyone. Which do you think we prefer?

Nola's Bedding

I picked out some bedding for Nola's room that I absolutely love!!! Guess what...it's NOT pink. I know you're shocked. It has been ordered and is on its way here as I type this! (Thanks, Mom and Mr. L.!)

Of course, I'm not getting the WHOLE set. That's a little bit overkill. I ordered the crib set (bumper, sheet, dust ruffle & quilt). I also got the changing pad cover and the pillow that will go in the rocking chair. I'm hoping to get the valance, but haven't ordered it yet. I decided against the lamp and rug. I don't want the hamper, diaper stacker or picture frames (!).

Isn't it beautiful?!? And it's girly/feminine without being frou-frou or pink. Just what I was looking for!

The Fine Line of Tackiness

When we had Caleb, I was honestly humbled by the baby showers that we were given. It seemed like everyone we knew wanted to help us celebrate our new baby boy. I registered for everything that I was told we would need and tried to make sure that most of the things we chose were relatively gender neutral so that we would be able to use them again if we had a second baby and it turned out to be a girl. I was always taught that you have baby showers for the first baby, but not for the second (or any others). That's not to say that all babies shouldn't be celebrated, but I've always done that on a slightly lesser scale - more along the lines of individual gifts from those that are close to you rather than an actual baby shower. It never even crossed my mind to register for gifts for Nola or that anyone would bring up having a shower for us. Now people have started to ask what kinds of things we want or need for Nola. It has taken me a little by surprise and has gotten me to thinking about what we really do need. Of course, we need basic essentials (diapers, wipes, etc) and baby girl clothes since everything we currently have is some shade of blue or green and most things have a car, truck, dinosaur or sports ball on it. There are a few other things that we need or want that have either come on the market in the past 3 years or that we have but need a second one for Nola.

After asking for opinions from my Facebook friends, I've decided to walk the fine line of tackiness and post a wishlist for Nola here on my blog. (Most everyone said it was just fine, by the way.) The list is over on the right sidebar. Here's my justification to myself: People have asked and those who aren't interested can ignore it. It's not like I just decided to make up a list and distribute it to everyone I know. Nobody is expected to get us anything at all. I'm just using this as a central place to keep a list and share it with those who ask for it.