Time does fly by…

     It’s hard to believe, but we are done counting months or weeks – we are now counting days unitl Maggie’s due date. It’s seemed so stinkin’ far away for so long now it’s like we’re in shock almost at the fact that her due date is this Sunday! But even with the feeling of utter shock, for lack of any better term, we couldn’t be more excited. Things in the house are basically ready for her. There are a few more cosmetic things we could to polish things off, but other than that we’ve got a house waiting for a baby. Not to mention the family waiting for the baby, and not just Lisa and I. It seems like everytime we call a family member or close friend they are expecting us to say we are on our way to the hospital. Lisa and I only hope.

     There are so many things that Lisa and I both wanted to do that just slipped by us so fast. It really has, probably more than anytime in either of our lives, been a huge time of change this year. We’ve moved churches, twice, in the last year, I’ve had a major job change, sort of twice, and of course the baby. It’s just been a whirlwind and every time we think we are going to get to catch up, we realize how much there is left to do, and such is life. We didn’t keep the journal that we had both hoped, and the belly pictures to laugh at later didn’t get taken, and there are probably a dozen other things that we missed. But I think we got the biggest thing right and we are closer now than ever. In everything we do in life there is fluff and there is substance and it’s often times hard to know the difference. It’s also sometimes hard to get rid of fluff when it’s been a part of things for so long, but when it’s gone you hardly miss it because the real substance of life more than fills in the gaps. That’s what we’ve done over the last year – we’ve said goodbye and walked away from what doesn’t matter, or what was fleating and grasped onto the people in our life, who despite no blood relation, are family and the things in life that are substance.

     In one of our rounds of shopping over the last few weeks we finally found a baby book we really liked, and while reading through it we remembered all those things that we didn’t do. But at the same time the book made me realize something, that what’s come up until now is the smallest percentage of the blessing that is coming in our life. I can’t wait to sit with Lisa, recall those memories and fill in those pages. But the real excitement will be here in a matter of days and as exciting as the last 39 weeks have been, we’re heading into a lifetime of yes some hard times and struggles, but also of joy, love, and blessing. I’ve heard over and over that God entrusts children to the parents and that we have a resposibility to raise them right, and I know that’s true. But looking at my life a year ago and thinking about where we are now, I wonder if God doesn’t think of it in a little different of way, also thinking of the parent and what the child does for them.

     I’ve never even see my child, never touched her face, or held her in my arms but because of her mine and Lisa’s life will forever be better because of her.