Extraordinary Life

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I don’t know if I’ve ever slept so little in my entire life. Alec is on a no-sleep kick at night, and getting more than a two-or-three-hour stretch of sleep is about unheard of these days.

Maybe that’s why I was thinking of how life used to be. Long ago, longer ago, and not-so-long ago. I love looking back. I love memories. The past always looks more enchanted to me than it actually was, but in thinking of it today I realized that the days really do just get better and better. I wouldn’t trade what I have now for what I had then, not for the world.

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Eric brought home two cube organizers yesterday, a four-cube and an eight-cube. The day before that, he brought home an A.C. unit. A while before that, he brought home a hide-a-bed couch. Before that, a big, beautiful armoire. Before that, two pretty couches.

All from his customers. All free. (Or at least, free until he decided to pay something for some of them.)

Getting all that stuff for "free" is pretty amazing, but not as amazing as exactly when we got it all.

The two matching couches were given to us soon after we moved into this house. If they’d been offered to us when we lived in our little house in Newberg, we wouldn’t have had room for them. As it was, I’d been wanting to put a couch in our guest room here, and what with having such a big living room, we needed something else to fill it up. The couches Eric’s customer gave us did the job perfectly. They even somewhat matched the couches we already had. We didn’t need more couches, but to get them just right after we’d been talking about wanting another set felt a bit like a hug from God.

The armoire was from the same customer, and at first it sat in our entryway looking bulky and out of place, beautiful as it was. Then I decided to move it into our room and use it for a coat closet, and it’s been just perfect. Again, we didn’t need it, and before we had it we didn’t know we wanted it, but it was given to us, and it is so useful. Another little hug from God. ...continue reading →

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“He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs in His arms and carry them in His bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young.”

My little boy hates going to bed. Almost since the day he was born, naptime has been an ever-changing scene of lullabies and rockings and swayings and shushings. Sometimes with all the lights on, sometimes with all the lights off. Sometimes when he’s only been up for an hour, sometimes when he’s been up for three. What worked last week doesn’t necessarily work this week.

These days he goes to sleep to the tune of “Jesus Loves Me” and “The Birds Upon the Treetops” while I pace the floor with him, and it’s almost like clockwork the way he fights it kicking and screaming and then suddenly is done and quietly sucks his binky till his eyelids fall shut. Then I sit in the rocker with him and feel the heavy breaths that move him in my arms and look down at his relaxed face and his little open mouth and think of how many more times I’ll have to do this . . . and how many more times I’ll wish I could. ...continue reading →

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He wakes up looking for his mommy. Sometimes with a wail, sometimes with a whimper, sometimes with a cry so loud he sounds pained or scared or both. But always looking for his mommy.

I hear him over the baby monitor, and I go running, and I throw the door open with a “Mommy’s here!”, and I see his little head bobbing around in his bed, up and looking for his mommy.

Today he wasn’t bobbing. He was crying and trying to find the binky that had fallen out of his mouth. He was crying, and I picked him up, and I put his binky in, and he closed his eyes and went back to sleep for as long as I would hold him. ...continue reading →