A long post and a mommy high

It's Sunday night and Andy just walked out the door to catch a flight to the earthquake affected area. He and 2 other guys are heading there tonight and will be doing relief work for several days. They are unsure at this point exactly what they will be doing. They are working with an organization that's heading up a lot of the relief efforts so it seems they'll get clearer direction when they get there and get in touch with the people from the organization. They've been told they will probably be heading to areas with smaller population which have received less help from the government than larger areas-possibly passing out water and other supplies, listening to people's stories and comforting them. But nothing is nailed down at this point. I'll let you know when I hear.



As we were praying last night about whether he should go, my heart was flooded with the sense of "higher purpose" we have on this earth and the inconveniences and difficulty of not having my husband around seemed so small in comparison to the opportunity he has to go and minister to people who are suffering beyond what i can imagine. So please pray with me for his safety (for the mom readers-it seems pretty safe at this point) but most of all for the people he will be serving. Maybe through what he says or maybe just through his actions, I pray that they would really sense the love and comfort Christ.



As for the aforementioned "inconveniences and difficulties of not having my husband around"-Of course I will really miss Andy's companionship and the comfort of having him around, but what I mainly was thinking about when we were deciding if he should go or not was the help and support he gives me with Emma Grace. I am going to really feel his absence most acutely in this way...This past week was especially rough for EG and I. I was not feeling well and she wasn't either. She just cried a lot and didn't sleep well at all and got up everyday at 6:30 (normal wake up for her is 7:00) and skipped 3 naps and didn't eat much and....hehe. Those things were all really tough for me but the hardest part by far has been the emotional toll of starting to discipline her. She is crawling and into everything. I am now constantly grabbing a dirty shoe from her right before she puts it in her mouth or telling her not to touch the dirty rug at our front door. (For those of you who've been to this country, you know the level of dirty I mean) Having to watch her constantly is tiring but the hardest part has been my self doubt in discipline. A lot of the books I've read and the advice I've gotten from people I really respect say to train her at a young age on what she can and can't do (things like blowing carrots all over me while eating) But I've had a really hard time knowing if she really understands or not. Sometimes after I discipline her she just looks at me like, "what was that for mom, I don't understand?" So several times this week I came to Andy in tears, sharing with him all my fears and doubts and frustrations. He's been very supportive and has been helping me to think through our goals and hopes for her in discipline. He's my backbone sometimes-just like when we were teaching Emma Grace to fall asleep on her own and I was so unsure of myself. I've really needed his help with her and his encouragement. So not having him around will be hard, but it's truly a small offering, one which I am excited to give. (but pray for me also!)



I've been praying a lot this week for Emma Grace, for myself and this whole discipline issue. One of my prayers has been, "Lord, please give me wisdom to know if she understands when I tell her no" (It's seems cruel to punish her if it's just a matter of her not being old enough to comprehend what I mean) I got a glimmer of what I was asking for today. She was crawling on the floor and saw something she is not allowed to touch (we've been working on this for about two weeks now and I was really starting to doubt if she even understood me) Today, she looked at it, stared at it for a minute (at this point I was sure she was going to go for it) and then shook her head "no" and kept moving....You have no idea how encouraging that moment was for me. It was a "mommy high." As a mom, it might be up there with first smile and first time to sleep through the night! God was kind to let me know she is starting to "get it." But please do pray for me!



I hope this entry hasn't sounded like I am complaining about my life or my daughter. I really do love her and I am so thankful for her. I've just had one of those "this job is really hard" weeks and it seemed appropriate to share. But let's end on a happy note...a funny store and a couple pictures from Emma Grace's first bath in the big bath tub! She loved it!



The story-(if you don't like kid poop stories then just skip down to the pics) Emma Grace didn't take her nap on Thursday morning so by lunch time she was really tired. She also had to poop. She was half leaning/laying on me when the pooping began. She was so tired that in between "grunts" she would lay her head down on my lap, close her eyes and start to fall asleep. She would then be jolted awake by the urge and grunt a couple more times and then close her eyes again and rest. In the end I had to wake her up to change her diaper before I could put her down for her nap. I've never heard of anyone falling asleep while doing their business.

On to the pics...




Thanks for reading this long post. Hope you all are doing well! Will keep you posted on how things are going for Andy! (and the two of us here holding down the fort)