New parents are awkward as young lovers. Really, we were so fumbling the first time around, with that new baby. Trying so hard, having read so much, all my hopes and dreams being tested so hard for their mettle.
I speak from experience, as a virgin bride, about awkward love! I loved so much, but knew nothing. I knew so much, and loved so little. Our capacity to love in truth broadens and deepens as we walk in love and grow in the knowledge and discipline of God's love. Just by living on, clinging to our Great Love as our lifeline.
I hope that in coming years I'll be ripened and full of wisdom. I feel like I'm just starting to get my feet under me, and keep losing ground still--and yet, I can say with full assurance that it has gotten so much better! Understanding my baby comes so much more naturally. Coping with the whirlwind of a house of children, managing my own unruly will--as we do and keep doing these things, we get more skilled at them!
Old ladies get such a bad rap these days for telling young moms to enjoy their children, but I think they say it precisely because they remember how impossibly hard it was! They don't say it because they think it's easy for us! They can see how incompetent we are, and how hard we're trying, and they have sympathy and compassion for us.
I am thankful for:
Meals made and given and delivered!
thoughtful gifts, prayers, companionship, absolution
so many hand-me-downs
People really loving my kids
people not angry, but delighted at my kids' interruptions in church
listening, processing, advice, stories, reassurance
friends like family and family like friends
playdates, good books, beauty, cleaning my house!
handmade gifts, babysitting
friendly strangers
Pictures all of Willem Moses, third-time-Charm baby.
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