Learning to Trust the Lord

It has been a challenging week for me and Abigail. Her teething has picked up intensity, and Abigail makes sure that we all understand that she's not super happy. Thankfully, she still sleeps really well, and maybe just maybe the teeth will pop through soon.

On another note, while I was talking to a nurse on the phone about the teething issue, I also brought up her developmental milestones. She is hitting all of her milestones except for her gross motor development. Even though she spends time on her tummy everyday, she is still not rolling over. Around 2/3 months they should be able to roll from tummy to back, and they learn back to tummy around 4/5 months. She also still has some head lag and isn't near sitting on her own (though the nurse did inform me that this doesn't need to happen until 6/7 months). In the conversation, the nurse mentioned that Abigail will need to be assessed by the ECIS (Early Childhood Intervention) if she doesn't meet these milestones soon.

I proceeded to do what I do best - go on the Internet and freak myself out. I think I have just enough of a science background to be dangerous. Tears ensued, and my poor hubby spent a good chunk of Tuesday evening consoling me. Worry is definitely one of my vices.

I ended up talking to my mom (and ECIS) on Wednesday. My mom reminded me that I didn't take my first step until 15 months, Daniel was slow as an older toddler, and the boys both needed help with speech. Rodney wasn't exactly the specimen of coordination as a child either. The ECIS nurse was also WONDERFUL. She basically told me to put Abigail on her tummy and let her cry and work hard. I've been putting Abigail on her tummy since she was itty bitty, but I needed the extra encouragement to persevere during gymnastics with mommy. There is a new intentionality to tummy time.

Yes, I am learning to trust the Lord, and holding Abigail with an open hand is hard to do. It's easy to say to God, "My faith would falter if anything ever happens to my little girl." And yet, serving and loving the Lord, with a joyful heart, no matter what comes my way is the true mark of faith. A few weeks back, I sat through a sermon on Abraham. For years, God didn't bless him with a son, and even when Abraham died, all of God's promises had not been fulfilled in his life. It's easy from a birdseye perspective to look down and say, God met ALL of his promises. But what must Abraham have felt? Most certainly he felt abandoned by God at times - the deal with Hagar is proof of that. And yet God still blessed Abraham with Isaac - what a beautiful picture of grace.

My heart is pretty wretched, and as a wife and mom, I have TONS to learn about yielding all things to the Lord, trusting Him in all things, and worshiping Him as the Sovereign Lord. I thank God that His grace is sufficient in all things and His power is perfected in my weaknesses.

So that's what has been on my heart this week --

And because it's been hard, my prince of a husband has stuck close by my side this week. As a result, we've played a lot of Scrabble and watched movies in the evenings. I am a blessed woman. So I've included some pictures from our week to end this post on a cheerful note...

Abigail "playing" with mommy and daddy.

we have quite the competition going...rodney tends to win more than I do (arrgghhh)... and note that Abigail now has one of her teething toys instead of the scrabble game piece.

Abigail is much happier when she's close to us. Here she is joining us for dinner.

And some big news: I'm going to start her on rice cereal tomorrow!!! I was going to wait until 6 months, like most BF moms I know, but I think she's ready now. She's hungry, been waking up earlier in the morning, and has an all-things-mouth fetish...


Isn't she beautiful!

The good news is: she does really well standing on her own. She loves to be on both of her feet...she just needs a little help with her other motor skills.

This is one of my favorite new shirts (it is super soft)-- I hit the jackpot on Craigslist last week and Miss Abigail has clothes through 18 months sizes, though she'll be wearing them long before 18 months rolls around. She's quite the chunky little girl. I also picked up another batch of cloth diapers on Monday. I picked up some BumGenius 3.0 and BumGenius organic all in ones. I love them both. I think cloth diapers are adorable. Here she is sporting a FuzziBunz pink diaper.