Skip to main content

...of a church nap

I am sitting in the parking garage next to the hotel where our church meets with a finally sleeping baby, glad that I brought the wifi with me.

I have been trying to be thankful for the years at the Austin Stone where we had four church service times to choose from. Sometimes, however, I feel upset that we only have one option now. And that one option is exactly during Selah's first and best nap. In those moments of frustration, The Lord reminds me to be grateful that we even have a church body here. We weren't expecting to and it's been a great blessing. We've made some new friends and we love the heart of Redeemer Dubai.

Actually, most of the friends I have made have been other moms walking their babies around trying to get them to go to sleep during the service just like I do with Selah each week. Sometimes we can only give each other empathetic looks and smiles as our strollers pass and the babies exchange cries of frustration. Sometimes, by God's grace, we can stop and have a whispered chat and congratulate each other on the success of our sleeping children. But it's been a blessing, even when I can't be a part of the actual service.

Every once in awhile, Quinn takes Selah duty and I am the one who gets to go into service with Abram (who doesn't go to KIDS because he still sucks his thumb and seems to pick up any possible virus that might be present in a room full of small children). He does such a good job sitting quiet during prayer and the message and praising Jesus during the worship. Quinn has prayed fervently that he would be able to do that, and God has answered those prayers so faithfully.

Today, Selah was just refusing to fall asleep in her stroller and I thought I might die of heatstroke if I put her in the Beco. We were in a different ballroom with less places to take a sleeping baby. So, after getting to visit with a few friends, I got the keys from Quinn and headed out to the car. After driving circles around the parking garage for about 15 minutes, she finally fell asleep and I was able to park. She is hitting her 30 minute mark (her normal transient nap length time) and Quinn and Abram should be coming out of church soon.

Thankfully this is only one day a week. Every other day she willingly goes down for her naps without the use of a motor vehicle and who knows how much petrol.

And I got to listen to "Avalanche" by Hillsong on repeat for an hour. So that was nice.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

... of the tipping point

 I haven't blogged in so very long, I can't remember when and I'm not going to stop this thought train to go and check. Suffice it to say, it's been awhile. But I showed up here to share (and document) a major event in the life of our family.  Before Moses came home, I would see adoptive families posting about their kiddos' "Tipping Point Days". I recently heard it called something else as well, but I'm too tired to think of it right now. Basically, it is the day when your adopted child has been with you for as long as they were not  with you. For kids that were adopted at 1 or 2 or 3, that seems to come quickly and maybe feels eventful, but not monumental. Well, when we got custody of Moses he was about 4 years and 9 months old. I remember coming back to America and seeing someone in my adoption group post about their 2 or 3 year old's Tipping Point Day and thinking I should figure out when Moses's would be. So I did. I sat down and figured ou...

... of a gracious gift from God

As we have resettled and felt a calmness and stability in Austin that we knew was from the Lord, we started praying about and considering adding another child to our family. We felt like we had room in our heart and our home and so, with a lot of peace and excitement from us and the kids, we found out in September that we were expecting a baby in June 2016! We have held off telling more than close friends and family until we made it through the 12 week ultrasound appointment when we would make sure everything was looking normal. That appointment was a few weeks ago. We saw our new little squirrel wiggling around and measuring right on schedule. But after the ultrasound, at my nurse's visit, they told me that the baby's nuchal translucency (a space at the back of the neck, used for indicating a possibly chromosomal abnormality) was a little big. Not too much, but enough to cause some concern. They suggested a non-invasive blood test that could detect an abnormality wit...

... of a shower

I have found (in my two days of experience), that the thing most sacrificed as a stay at home mom is personal hygiene. Or maybe this is just me. Maybe I don't prioritize it enough and you are all thinking: "How disgusting! That is always at the top of my list". Well, good for you. So far, my list has consisted of: feeding a baby, calming a crying baby, walking around the house trying not to wake the time bomb baby strapped to my chest. Rinse and repeat. Or don't rinse, just repeat. That's the whole point of this commentary. With a baby attached to some part of your body every second of the day, when are you supposed to shower? Or at least wash your face and brush your teeth? Today, I put him in his carseat while he was crying, ran into the shower, cleaned myself moderately well, and jumped out, only to find that he had cried himself to sleep. This was great, except that I would have taken a better shower if I knew THAT was going to happen. Oh well. At le...