Surprise!
What a weekend this has been!
First of all, let me happily announce that my sister finally had her baby on Friday. She was admitted into the hospital at 5:30am, and little Savannah Leigh was born at 1:50pm. She was 8 lbs. and (I believe) over 20 inches long! She looks just like her older sister did when she was born; it's uncanny. I wonder if she will grow up to look even more like her. Mom and baby are doing well and are coming home this morning (Sunday).
That made Friday all the more special to Ken, for that was his birthday, too. We spent the day in Greenville, doing fun things here and there, all the while making stops by the hospital. We took Gardner for his first trip to Mast General Store's candy shop....what a treat.
But Ken's celebration that evening back at our house was the big "surprise." He slowly unwrapped his gift, with me, Gardner, and my parents looking on. Within the layers of polka-dotted tissue paper, there laid a single sugar snap pea pod. Ken squinted to look at it more carefully, and he leaned back laughing when he notice that the pod had "eyes" (drawn by yours truly with a thinline Sharpie). "It's an 'eye pod,' sweetie," I said. "I figured this was the one we could afford best, so I got this model instead."
This creative (and slightly corny) idea was thought up by Mom as we tried to come up with a clever way to present Ken's gift to him. He mentioned something about us "not being quite right," but laughed nonetheless. And of course, his eyes lit up when I placed the real, blue-wrapped iPod package in his hand seconds afterwards.
Bear with me, but this got me thinking. Sometimes the things we see at the onset are just little pieces of what's coming later. Sometimes we have to put off the excitement of what we really want for something that tides us over, something that gives us just a taste of what's to come. Though Ken didn't have to wait very long from the pea pod unveiling to the iPod's arrival, some things in life take a lot longer than that....and some things we desire may never arrive for us. Yet there is always a good reason for it, even if it's not evident presently.
God gave me a morsel of what treasures might await me if I pursued the graduate degree I desperately wanted. Yet when I finally got the "gift" and opened it, it stared at me in the face and my heart sank. It was not nearly as beautiful as I'd imagined it to be. It left me empty.
Yet 1-1/2 years later, God's bountiful gift of a beautiful baby boy landed in my life, and no higher education could ever compare to him. The satisfaction I receive from being a mother has far exceeded the promises of fulfillment I had sought after back then. The bigger, shinier, and most exquisite package was beneath the first present in my lap. I just had to throw it off in order to reveal the bigger blessing God had for me.
First of all, let me happily announce that my sister finally had her baby on Friday. She was admitted into the hospital at 5:30am, and little Savannah Leigh was born at 1:50pm. She was 8 lbs. and (I believe) over 20 inches long! She looks just like her older sister did when she was born; it's uncanny. I wonder if she will grow up to look even more like her. Mom and baby are doing well and are coming home this morning (Sunday).
That made Friday all the more special to Ken, for that was his birthday, too. We spent the day in Greenville, doing fun things here and there, all the while making stops by the hospital. We took Gardner for his first trip to Mast General Store's candy shop....what a treat.
But Ken's celebration that evening back at our house was the big "surprise." He slowly unwrapped his gift, with me, Gardner, and my parents looking on. Within the layers of polka-dotted tissue paper, there laid a single sugar snap pea pod. Ken squinted to look at it more carefully, and he leaned back laughing when he notice that the pod had "eyes" (drawn by yours truly with a thinline Sharpie). "It's an 'eye pod,' sweetie," I said. "I figured this was the one we could afford best, so I got this model instead."
This creative (and slightly corny) idea was thought up by Mom as we tried to come up with a clever way to present Ken's gift to him. He mentioned something about us "not being quite right," but laughed nonetheless. And of course, his eyes lit up when I placed the real, blue-wrapped iPod package in his hand seconds afterwards.
Bear with me, but this got me thinking. Sometimes the things we see at the onset are just little pieces of what's coming later. Sometimes we have to put off the excitement of what we really want for something that tides us over, something that gives us just a taste of what's to come. Though Ken didn't have to wait very long from the pea pod unveiling to the iPod's arrival, some things in life take a lot longer than that....and some things we desire may never arrive for us. Yet there is always a good reason for it, even if it's not evident presently.
God gave me a morsel of what treasures might await me if I pursued the graduate degree I desperately wanted. Yet when I finally got the "gift" and opened it, it stared at me in the face and my heart sank. It was not nearly as beautiful as I'd imagined it to be. It left me empty.
Yet 1-1/2 years later, God's bountiful gift of a beautiful baby boy landed in my life, and no higher education could ever compare to him. The satisfaction I receive from being a mother has far exceeded the promises of fulfillment I had sought after back then. The bigger, shinier, and most exquisite package was beneath the first present in my lap. I just had to throw it off in order to reveal the bigger blessing God had for me.
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