Life as I know it

Time passes by. Seasons come and go.

Someday, life as I know it will too be different. Come what may, I would like to yet look back and remember the happiest, most adorable things about being mom to our baby princess. 

Scientifically speaking, we brought her into this world, yes - but we often forget that God, her Maker, gave her to us, a personal gift, over whom we were made stewards. In the midst of the season's challenges, it seems all too easy for us to want things to rush forward - so that Sophie would grow up a little faster, walk on her own a little earlier, be toilet-trained, communicate intelligibly in a vocabulary that we can understand and eat adult food with teeth that chew right. But the truth is this - the limitations that we face now are part of God's grace to us when He blessed us with a child. As we endure and learn to live with them (and their constant changes), we grow stronger. We are more dependent on God. We savour the beautiful details - patterns of God's favour and presence that we would have otherwise taken for granted. We live less unnecessarily because resources are now tighter and more cherished at the same time. 

For me, motherhood also holds me back from committing over-zealously to pursuits uncalled for. From running to an end of the world too far away from the centre of God's will. From being unfaithful to my husband. From the sins that I indulged in so frivolously and irresponsibly. From engaging in the disordered eating behaviours I was inclined to in times of stress. Or holding to a self-image that does not honour and glorify God. 

Sophie is in the phase of cruising around on her feet (very dangerously sometimes) with the help of our furniture. She is also very determined to defy the laws of gravity, hard-knocks-are-painful and I-will-fall-down-if-I-try-to-stand-on-my-own. 

Yep, that's my girl.

I caught her as she fell backwards for the umpteenth time today, stumped by yet another confrontation to her hypothesis - and thanked God for the moment. I know that I will come to miss moments like this. Someday. 

Loving you, our courageous daughter.