Family

I'm certain to offend some people with this post, but I'll put that up front. If you may get offended, or don't want to be offended by me, please don't read this. But this is too big of a deal to not blog about for my future reference. Keyword being MY.

So just a few days ago (I believe on 6.26), the supreme court made the decision to legalize gay marriage in the US. I deleted the Facebook app off of my phone because people are nuts. If I have to read one more post about how this is the gateway for pedophilia, I'm going to lose it. (Because 100% of known pedophile cases get locked up in jail and have to announce to their neighbors when they move into a neighborhood and 1 million other restrictions. And I'm thinking there's 0 things like that applied to gay relationships. The relationships were legal, only the status of marriage with its legal ramifications was not granted.)

I think what has bothered me the most about this whole debate is that Christians are saying that it's defiling marriage and defiling the family. Marriage is a religious institution.  I have a suggestion. Let the government no longer grant marriages. Only churches should. And let the government only issue civil unions. When I go to a wedding in a church with a priest and I know the couple doesn't have a relationship with God, I leave the service scratching my head. To me, this is part of the problem. If marriages are something created by God, then why do people outside of the church get married? Is it still a marriage if both parties aren't believers?

Furthermore, the church doesn't take marriage seriously. It's not treated with the sacredness it should be! This is OUR problem. If we want the world to respect marriage and consider it holy, then we better live in such a way that our marriages reflect that. But they don't. People should be able to look at our marriages and families and say that we're doing something right. Won't it be a big black eye on the church if gay marriages have a lower divorce rate than traditional evangelical marriages? I can see that happening because this is going to be a BIG DEAL for people to marry who have never been able to before, and I believe they're going to take it seriously.

I really feel that before we start hurling stones at people, we better take a good look inward.

In our world today with the highest number of human slaves in history and wars and murders and everything going on, I really don't feel that people WANTING to commit themselves to one another should be at the top of our list of horrors.

The family unit is terribly important. I think family is where Charlie and I will shine. But maybe we could attack things with action rather than pointed fingers.

hungry

So much I've been thinking about. There's been several times I've thought, "I need to blog about that" and then I forget.
I was able to see my mom, aunts, and a couple of cousins in Pensacola at the end of last week. It was WONDERFUL. A flying trip, but one I would take again in a heartbeat. Mom and I spent almost all day Friday at the beach. We took walks looking for seashells. We sat in the shade at the beach. And we took AJ to the pool for her first time in the water (other than a bath, of course).
AJ has been doing really well lately--I feel less fussy than she has been. But Friday was a fairly exhausting day for her (only 1 nap and LOTS of stimulation) and she was FIGHTING going to sleep.
So, as I was holding her and trying to give her the last evening feeding and she was screaming and yelling--I could just feel the presence of God. I could feel that I am just like her at times.

Yes, baby. I know you're hungry.
Yes, baby. I know you're so exhausted.
Yes, baby. I know!

And I held her close and I knew how safe she was. I knew that all of the emotions she was feeling that were spilling out of her were real--she WAS feeling hunger pangs and the wear-and-tear of exhaustion. But I was holding her and she was safe and the bottle was in her mouth and all she had to do was drink. And close her eyes and let me hold her and feed her.

14 weeks

AJ is a little over 14 weeks old! She's growing up so quickly!

We went up to Illinois and she got to meet Aunt Stacy and Uncle Alan, Caleb, and Asher for the first time. She LOVED watching her cousins play! She would just lay on the floor and watch them run around the room. Wherever they went, her eyes would follow. It was very sweet.

We had a really nice time. Hiking, talking, feeding babies, putting babies down for naps, hugging babies, and cleaning up toys that babies played with :)

When I came back home on Monday I felt refreshed. I realllllllllllllly wish I could have my whole family closer, but I AM very thankful that we have family close down here. Very thankful.

But that didn't stop me last night from making up a dream life where my dad gets a job at Healing Place school of ministry and they live down the street from us :/ And of course Susan (and family) and Stacy would magically move down here, too. Of course.

Sooooo right now AJ is probably working the hardest at bringing things she is holding to her mouth. And attempting to chew on them. She also rolls over from her belly to her back sometimes (typically when she's pretty awake and I lay her on her tummy.) She LOVESLOVESLOVES standing up. She loves it when we sing "AJ Loup-ty Loup" to her and make her dance. She also loves daddy's animal noises.

When I sing to her, I find myself always gravitating toward old Brookhill summer camp songs. "Sanctuary", "As the Deer", "Light a Fire", "Father, I adore you" etc. It's funny! I guess those songs are soothing to me and that's why they come to mind. AJ generally responds well to them.

She's wearing size 1 diapers. She sleeps 8-11 hours per night (although, for whatever reason, she seems to wake up in the middle of the night more often when Charlie has her...?) She also isn't napping great at Mimi's house, but Mimi went overboard and is making her a whole set-up nursery at her place to make AJ as comfy as possible over there. I'm very very grateful that Mimi is doing such much for AJ. It's allowing me to 1) go to work and 2) not worry when I'm AT work! That's just as big as being able to go! I know AJ is smothered with love all day! And I'm sure she'll get more and more comfortable over there and nap like she does over here. (or they'll just get into their own routine).

What else? It's terrible selfish, but I like it when AJ responds the best to me--feeding, sleeping, bathing, etc. Sometimes if Charlie can't get her to do something, I can. That's very selfish, I know. But I feel like it's a Mommy-right! Charlie does WAY more for and with her than I think a lot of men do--and I love that (and I know AJ benefits from it), but I do really like being her mommy. There's nothing else like it. (It's Father's Day tomorrow. Sorry Charlie!) (Obviously I'm wild about you, and AJ is, too!)

That's probably enough for now. Really, probably too much :) But that's okay. I think me and my mom are my only viewers.