This Present Joy

I first “met” Jeanne Damoff through my friend TJ’s blog last fall. I found myself clicking through Jeanne's website--looking at her pictures, reading about her life--drawn in by her vivid use of words. Then I came to a paragraph that talked about her 15-year-old son Jacob’s near-drowning accident. She had written a book about it, Parting the Waters , and it was going to be released in November 2008. At first, I shrinked from the thought of reading the book. Our family had already been through so much suffering and unknown the previous year, I didn’t know if I wanted to read about anyone else’s suffering. However, the synopsis of the book intrigued me, offered hope even, and when I read Lisa Samson’s quote on the front of the book, I couldn’t wait for the book to come out. “ . . this book is for anybody whose life didn’t turn out quite the way they expected.” It was a Thursday afternoon when Parting the Waters came in the mail. I had about 15 minutes before I had to pick up Carly fr...

We are happy to report that Hannah is sitting independently! She has been for a few weeks now but still has the occasional fall backwards. She'll tip backwards onto the pile of blankets I have set up behind her, and she'll lay there, staring up at the ceiling like she's trying to figure out what just happened. Sometimes, she'll cry, but it's more of a frustrated cry of "I don't want to be here on the ground, I want to be sitting again!" She rolled from her stomach to her back on Christmas day, and she's working on the roll from back to stomach. Because her pelvis had to be stitched together after she was born, her legs don't come together as easily so she has a wider "stance" than most babies. As a result, her legs get in the way a bit when she's trying to roll. She wears some hip huggers occasionally (they look like bicycle shorts but the legs are almost completely sewn together) to help bring her hips together. She's...

The bedtime routine around our house can take awhile (and I'm not even talking about me--that's for another post, another time. J always makes fun of how long it actually takes me to get ready for bed vs. how long I say it takes me. . .but, honestly, washing my face, taking my contacts out, brushing/flossing, doing one last walk-through of the house and tucking in the girls. . those things take time.) ANYWAY. Where was I? So, the bedtime routine for Carly. Suffice it to say, getting Carly to bed has become a bit drawn-out at times. I got into a habit of singing her a song (or two or three) some months ago, so that has become a staple of the routine. Which I don't at all mind. I enjoy the sweet, quiet time with her and I hope it's something that she continues to want to have with me as she gets older. A few songs, tucking her in with her multiple blankies, rounding up all the animal friends she wants to snuggle with in bed. . ah, and I can't forget the inevitable req...