Happy 5 Month, Emma Josephine!

Emma, dear, you are over 5 months old today!

Over the past few weeks you’ve been growing like a weed, turning pants into capris after one trip through the wash. You’re active. You roll across the room and scoot backwards across the floor, but not quite at a crawl. You push and pull and spin and turn to get a better view of mom and dad or a better grip on toys and textures. And oh, how you laugh! You laugh at belly kisses and repeat movements and squeaky smooches against those chubby cheeks. You are always moving, feeling, discovering.

You left one daycare and began another and, despite my fears, you didn’t spend a moment looking back. Crawling-confusion aside, you are always moving forward, teaching your mom to fear less and trust God more. At your new daycare, you claimed your title of easiest sleeper and took a bottle by yourself. You sit up tall, with a little help, and put your paci in your mouth.

You made your way to your first wedding dance floor and became grandpa’s favorite dance partner. You wooed momma’s high school friends and enchanted daddy’s coworkers.  You dined at dinner parties and lunch dates, dipping your hands in plates along the way. But when those hands reach up and your arm wraps tightly around our necks? We are hugged in happiness and joy!

Your dad and I would love to slow the clock with you and soak in every precious moment. We are living for the weekends and our hours uninterrupted. Our family of four. Full of love and time fast-moving.

Happy 5 month, Emma Josephine. You are a blessing to this family and a joy.

Pour a glass; it's time to un(wine)d.

Tonight, I attempted to burn the midnight oil at work but called it quits around 11:15pm so I could walk out with a coworker. I’m incredibly busy right now and this project that I had previously sunk days into from February has finally come back to me, as was promised – though I hoped I could manage to avoid it. In the past two days, I have logged 6.75 hours into this one project and in the end, I walked out today with nothing more than an empty recycle bin on my desktop.

It’s ridiculous to admit, but tears welled up in my eyes as I entered my time tonight. I have 51 assignments in my “work in process” bin right now and those are only the ones for which I have bothered to route myself the workflow; there are more on my desk or buried in my e-mail inbox – no exaggeration.

There’s a lesson to be learned in this. What it is – I couldn’t say for certain but lessons are always discovered in times of frustration. Here’s what I think it might be: I have an amazing foundation of friends.

Yes – in the face of work, budgets, time restraints, assignments, deadlines, and impossible projects, this is my conclusion. I’m blessed. Little texts or phone calls or even songs on the radio remind me that I’ve got a great support system. I don’t think I’ve ever been so aware of it before as I have been during these past few months. My friends are always in my thoughts and prayers and although I often find myself too busy to make that phone call or drive out, they always seem to find ways to check in with me.

In closing, I’ve gotta share this prayer my mom gave me from the church services she attended this past Sunday. I feel like perhaps God had a way of ensuring it would get into my hands:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Btw, I can type a ridiculous amount of words per minute. Chalk one up to the internship!

“How Far Do You Wanna Go” Gloriana