Two under 2

Today is the last day I can say I have two under 2. It seems surreal that Saoirse is turning 2 tomorrow. I mean, not on the tantrum front. Man alive, she's been throwing tantrums forever! I mean, just thinking that she's officially a two year old... I don't know how to handle that thought.

Every night after she goes to bed, her dad and I come out into the living room and cry because we know that we are one night closer to her being all grown up and out of the house. And hitting the 2 year mark just makes that truth hit home. She's growing up. She's growing up and there's nothing I can do about it.

Tomorrow night I'll post pictures of her birthday and blog about all the fun stuff we did, but today I want to do a brief recap of her year.

She proved how grown up she was when daddy left for training all summer long. For a one year old, that is a VERY long time. 

Especially when you have a daddy as wonderful as hers.

But she got to visit him at Newport. She especially loved playing with him on the beach!

She had lots of fun over the summer! She went to the pool,

she played with her friends, Shirah and Miles,

she discovered the pleasure of a sand box,

she gained another Uncle,

and she became a BIG sister!

She moved across the country to sunny San Diego.

She became OBSESSED with the zoo!

She started soccer.

She fell in love with Lady and the Tramp :)

She met Mamaw and Papaw at the airport!

She fell in love with Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

She started doing everything we did. Cooking, cleaning, taking care of the baby... you name it!

Even playing video games like Daddy.

Oh yeah, and the tantrums. Oh my, the tantrums!

Yet, throughout it all, she still managed to be the most adorable little girl in the world! Although, we're a bit biased.

It has been a whirlwind year. So many changes, so many new things to see and do. It's been so fun watching her little personality develop. She's a pip! She doesn't look a thing like me, but she definitely has my personality. She's smart, she's sassy, she's kind, she's energetic, she's determined, she's loving ... and a million other things. But to sum it all up, she's amazing!

I can't imagine my life without her. She has taught me love, grace, patience and forgiveness. I'm constantly amazed at how I love her. I go to bed thinking, "I cannot possibly love my kids anymore." And yet, every day, I love them more than the day before. I can't believe God blessed us so richly.

Happy 2nd Birthday baby girl! We love you so much and can't wait to see the person God has created you to be!

Loving the sinner

Yesterday was Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. My family and I attended a Rally for Life that was put on by a local Pregnancy Care Clinic. They are trying to open a new clinic up in a location in San Diego that most people forget about. They want to be present in a community that has a large number of unplanned pregnancies and not many options for how to handle such a situation.

It got me thinking. About abortion. About adoption. About how everyone, Christians included, are afraid to tackle such subjects. We are afraid of the backlash. We are afraid of offending someone. I have both fears, but I feel that something needs to be said about it.

I think if you ask most Christians, they will tell you that they are against abortion. And if you ask most of them, they will say that it is an area of our world that desperately needs Christ. Yet, whenever I've spoken to a group of Christians, at church, at a rally, at a fundraising event... you mention abortion and they all begin to shake their heads, raise their eyebrows, whisper to their neighbors about how abhorrent it is... use words like 'abhorrent'. And I think to myself, how is that attitude helping anyone? Especially when you realize that 70% of women who have an abortion classify themselves as believers. These women could be sitting in the pew next to you and you're saying these things to them. Think about that.

Don't get me wrong. I think abortion is wrong. The same way that I think that lying is wrong. Stealing is wrong. You get the point. It's easy to love and accept someone who is a liar and needs Christ. Why do we struggle with those who have gone through an abortion? Don't they deserve love? Don't they deserve grace? Don't they deserve Christ?

I get tired of it. The JUDGEMENT. That's not how you make a difference. You want to stop abortions in this country? Then stop judging and start loving. Stop making them feel like they are unforgivable and show them what it means to be redeemed.

That's what I love about these pregnancy centers. They love on these women. They provide them with choice... true choice. They explain the choice of parenting. They explain the choice of abortion. They explain the choice of adoption. And for a woman in a crisis pregnancy situation, none of these choices are easy. But the staff and volunteers at a pregnancy center will be there for that woman, no matter what she chooses.

That is love. That is compassion. That is Christ. That is what we need to do.

So here's my challenge for you and myself: If we want to make a difference for these women, we need to get involved.

Here's some suggestions:
pray
donate
volunteer
pray
throw the center a shower
buy diapers next time you're out and drop them off at the center
give them all your old baby clothing, blankets, bedding, etc.
pray
serve as an event volunteer
vote pro-life
get 5 friends to do the 'walk for life' in your area
...and did I mention pray? 'Cause that's a big one.

So stop complaining about the amount of abortions in this country and get out and do something about it.

She can laugh at the days to come

Tonight the Chaplain wives in the San Diego area had a "Hail and Farewell". For those not in the Navy, this is a time when we welcome new families to the area and say good bye to those who are moving on to their next station.

This particular event was really special because the farewell was the wife of a Captain who is retiring on Friday. They have been in the Navy for nearly 30 years. They married and had children when they were young (still in their 20's). They've seen the world... Hawaii, Okinawa, and all over the coasts of the US. They've been through wars... Desert Storm, Iraq, Iraq again, Afghanistan. On Sunday they are making their last trek across the country to Philadelphia where they have purchased a HUGE house for the purpose of providing free housing for other chaplains who need a place to stay for vacation and/ or for churches who go on urban mission trips and need free housing.

As I sat listening to her and other women's stories, I thought to myself, can we do this? One of the new wives talked about her fear of deployment. The response of the seasoned? It's all in your attitude. When you're a military wife, especially a Chaplain's wife, you face an awful lot of separation. How do you reconcile that with kids who LOVE their daddy? How does a marriage retain it's strength if you don't see each other for almost a year at a time?

You overcome with a positive attitude. You find a way to make moves, deployments, holidays, etc. fun and adventurous, even without daddy. You talk about him often. You make videos for him. You write him letters. You come up with plans of things to do when he gets home. But most importantly, you keep a positive attitude.

It made me think of the Proverbs 31 woman. The woman who can look to her future and "laugh at the days to come". As for me? I'm terrified. If we stay in this field, can I really handle a deployment?

No. I can't. I'm not strong enough to do that. I need Bryan.

Honestly, that's the first thought that goes through my head. Then I think about our history. Scotland. Saoirse's birth. Reuben's birth. Moving across the country with two kids under two. I didn't think I could do any of that either.

It's crazy how often I need to be reminded of how BIG my God is. You'd think I've learned this lesson by now. But he keeps teaching me over and over again because, apparently, I have a friggin' thick skull.

Bryan isn't being deployed yet. We don't even know if it will happen or not. But if it does, will one of you please remind me that I serve a BIG, HUGE, AWESOME God? Remind me that He is infinitely stronger than I am. Remind me that I'm not alone... that other wives are there to support me.

Remind me that my God is bigger than any of our problems... including deployment. Don't let me forget that. Maybe I can look at those days ahead and laugh because I know that I'm not really in control of anything. And that's the most encouraging thought ever.

A New Year, A New Challenge

I'm not really one for New Year resolutions. If I want to change something in my life, I just do it. I don't wait for a New Year to change things. Plus, I think a lot of people make resolutions just because it's a new year, not because they actually are resolving to change something about their life.

That being said, a friend posted this blog on facebook and it posed a challenge to start the new year that I am actually interested in. Actually, it's not just an interest... it's a need. This is something I need to do.

It's a call to gentleness. Anyone who knows me, knows that gentleness is not and never has been my strong point. I have a temper. I yell at people. I tell people off when I think they've done wrong. And I'm generally not very nice about it.

For a long time, I really liked this part of my personality. People tend not to mess around with me because they know I'll take them to task for it. It served me well in the professional arena. People knew what I wanted, when I wanted it and that I would let 'em have it if they didn't deliver.

However, I've found this quality to be extremely problematic with my role as a mother. You see, a toddler doesn't understand why I'm frustrated. My toddler can't just do what I want them to do because, well, she's just a toddler!

I lose my temper. I raise my voice. I expect more than she is capable of delivering. I take frustrations out on her or her dad when he gets home. Neither one of them deserve that.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I'm a horrible mother and wife. I'm actually a very good mother and wife. But I can be better. This is an area I've been working on lately and praying about constantly. So to start off this New Year, I'm taking the Gentleness Challenge. I pray that I can grow to be a gentle mother and wife.

For any of you who are interested in joining the challenge with me, here's a link to the site.
http://womenlivingwell.org/2012/01/introducing-the-gentleness-challenge/ Encourage me in this. Hold me accountable. Pray for me to become a gentler mother, a gentler wife, a gentler person.

A Very Sunny Christmas

While everyone back home suffered through a 40 degree and wet Christmas, it was sunny and in the 70's here in San Diego! On a side note, I don't feel bad at all for bragging about our awesome weather. I endured 3 years of Glasgow (a city that gets more rain than Seattle), so trust me, I earned this.

We were lucky enough to have the Dove family come visit for the holidays, and boy, did we make the most of it!

It started out with a trip to Disneyland! Saoirse was so excited to meet Minnie and Mickey! Don't let the face fool you. This is what she does when we ask her to smile.

It was like watching her reunite with an old friend. She loved playing in Minnie's house and she desperately wanted to touch Mickey's nose.

However, after Minnie and Mickey the excitement got the best of her and she threw the worst temper tantrum I've ever seen. She was swinging her arms and legs, screaming bloody murder, and she even started hitting me at one point! It was surreal. I mean, how do you give a kid time out in the middle of Disney? We finally did get her to calm down and discovered later in the day that she had an allergic reaction to soy, which caused her poor little face to break out in red blotches and I'm convinced it was a huge factor in the tantrum. That episode aside, she loved the rest of her day at Disneyland.

She really enjoyed "It's a Small World", which was all decked out for Christmas. It was amazing. Even Reuben enjoyed the ride. He loved seeing all the bright colors and listening to the music.

And since Mamaw and Papaw were with us, Bryan and I got to enjoy the afternoon just the two of us while the grandparents took the kids back to the hotel for a nap. We had a ridiculously expensive, but super delicious meal at the Blue Bayou Cafe and just had fun walking around the park together.

If Disneyland wasn't exciting enough, there was Christmas. Oh man, what a crazy experience. It was fun this year watching Saoirse get really excited about Christmas. She didn't quite understand the concept of Santa leaving her a gift, but she understood the concept of gifts! And did she have a good one waiting for her.

Her brand new play kitchen! It has an oven, a fridge, a microwave, a sink, pots and pans, cooking utensils... the whole nine yards. She was in heaven. It was actually hard to convince her to open any more presents because all she wanted to do was play.

And it was great to watch Reuben on his very first Christmas. Even though he had no clue what was going on, he was spoiled by all his grandparents, aunties and uncles.

The best gift, however, was having everyone together for Christmas. We loved having Mamaw and Papaw out for such a long time and having Jen and Chris for Christmas. 

We even got to go to Sea World while Mamaw and Papaw were here! That was such a fun day... except for the part where Saoirse licked the dolphin tank. True story... she licked the tank. Gross.

But we all enjoyed seeing the penguins, dolphins, sea lions, and, of course, SHAMU!

We caught the Christmas special, which was beautiful and strangely, VERY Christian. It was a night show though so we had to bundle the kiddos up in their coats and hats, but they didn't seem to mind. Saoirse was amazed by Shamu! (Although you can't really tell by this picture.)

And Reuben was totally occupied with snuggling with the polar bear his daddy bought him.

All in all, it's been a great holiday. Even though we are all stuck inside with the cold, thank you very much tank licking Saoirse, we wouldn't change a thing. And when we're all feeling better again, we get to go play in 70 degree weather and sunshine instead of fighting the horrible cold of Ohio. Such a hard life! Ha ha!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! P.S. The camera caused a really weird glare on Bryan's glasses. no clue how that happened exactly. Oh well!