Soft as a Kitten

Soft as a kitten. Sweet babies. Absolutely precious. Today, as I was holding my sweet baby in my arms I buried my face into her soft hair and breathed it in. It was wonderful. Call me crazy. Go ahead. I don't care. There is something enduring about the smell and the feel of a baby. It's like holding a kitten close. From the peach pads of their feet to the feel of their velvety hair and all the cute stuff in between babies are bottles of joy ripe for cuddling. Amazing creations. So there I sat taking in my baby, holding her tight in my arms, just cuddling. Times with our children are so fleeting, we all know this. You blink and that pink and new baby starts walking, blink again and she's riding a bike, blink, blink, blink, now you're looking at her holding up neon earrings asking you when she can get her ears pierced. Blink, blink, blink some more and you start bouncing her babies off your knee and taking in their sweet scent when you hold them close to your chest. Then all of the sudden your treasure chest of baby memories open up and you snap back to all the sweet times you had with that sweet babies own mama. My grandbabies aren't here yet but I love to still imagine the times I get to hold them in my arms and watch them wrap their cute chubby fingers around my wirey grey hair and remember when their own mama wrapped her precious chunky pink hand in my smooth silky brown hair. The love will be the same, even if the face and the hair is different. And I don't stop with little babies. The other day my twelve year old buried herself into my lap and wrapped her legs around my own. We sat there for awhile, us two, breathing each other in, holding each other close. I buried my face in her thick brown hair and remembered briefly when it was soft,black and new. I ran my fingers along her own, looking at her Hello Kitty nails and started counting them like I did when she was first born. The years don't matter. I've stopped holding my eyes wide open in fear of blinking the time away. Babies are precious at any age, from newborn to ten months to 3 yrs to 12, even 80. All the years are precious. And I'm going to love taking in every moment of it.

Blessed Contentment

Blessed contentment nestled safely in the arms of an active imagination. Children are truly gifts finding joy in simple things, creating stories out of everyday objects. One might see the palm of the hand as something to grasp objects, or perform everyday functions such as holding a pencil or cooking but to a child, the palm of a hand can be an airplane gliding over the jungles of his shag carpet, locating lost treasure in a faraway island.
My three eldest took to an adventure in the crocodile infested waters of the Amazon with merely the lid of a sand box and some baseball bats for oars. Their adventure began calmly at first until my tiny navigator spotted trouble ahead, is it a 100 foot anaconda? Or a lost and volatile tribe of jungle natives with sharp spears in hand?
When I look at this picture it reminds me to take heart and find solace in simple matters. We all wear heavy coats lined with our own weighted circumstances.
I have to be honest, moving here has been one trial after another. Once one growth project gets completed and plucked from my garden then planted in the memory of my Never Agains, another always seems to take root. But that is life: a series of refining circumstances. To look at the path of one's existence and become burdened by the adventure ahead is always a disastrous beginning.
Watching my children play is a great reminder that no matter what I deem as important enough to steal my joy, it really isn't. That is something I love about the foundation of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I know my purpose. I know my end. Health, finances, child rearing, marriage, faith or lack there of are all prime soil for discontentment. I will never be asked to do more than my Lord was and because of His redeeming grace, there is solace and peace for the Christian. labored works will never be enough to pay any toll. Only Christ. Only Christ is sufficient. Maybe that is why He says to come to Him "as the little children." (Matthew 19:14, Mark 9:37, Mark 10:14)

Sweet Boys