Announcements, Compliments, and Conversations

My husband shared some special news from the pulpit last Sunday: "I'm very happy to announce that Julie and I are expecting ... " Oohs and aahs rippled through the congregation before he added, "and you were not expecting an April Fool's joke."

If we are blessed with another addition to our family, I'm thinking of announcing it here on Meatball Minutes first. For today, the most exciting news I have to share is that Jair is an official big boy now. We started potty training last Monday morning. I was ready to quit by dinnertime. Yet, by the end of the week, a reward system of Peanut M&M's, Lightning and Mater boxers, and lots of praise gave us a fully trained and very happy son.

Jair's new accomplishment has boosted his confidence with the ladies, too. He told our our friend Becky, a thin college student, "You look cute in those sunglasses." A few minutes later he informed her, "You can't fit through there [a porch railing]; you're too fat." Now that we've mastered using the potty, I think we'll move on to conversing tactfully with women. That should keep us busy for the next thirty years or so.

Ali, on the other hand, is doing well in the compliments department. She may still love her daddy more, but she made my day during this conversation last weekend:
Ali: Why wouldn't Bambi say hi to the girl deer?
Julie: Well, sometimes when boys think girls are pretty, they don't know what to say to them.
Ali: Oh. Did Daddy not know what to say to you?
Julie: Are you saying Daddy thinks I'm pretty?
Ali: Mommy, everybody thinks you're pretty!

I'm flattered, though I'm not sure where she got her information. Usually, when I ask "Where did you learn that?," she answers, "At Sarah Mony's house." (Sarah Mony, pronounced just like ceremony, is her twelve-year-old imaginary friend. Sarah has a brother named Sissa who is 7, a sister Mary who is 64, and baby sister Christy who is 1-month old.) This morning I learned she has another source of knowledge. "I was reading in this newspaper that it's good for bears to watch a lot of TV," Ali told me at breakfast, "so I guess Teddy can."

Teddy and I didn't get a chance to watch TV this morning, or read the newspaper, or visit Sarah Mony's house, but we're learning too. The little people in my house are not just a source of funny stories. They are also a source of testing and refining - trying my patience, mirroring my sin, exposing my pride, bringing me to repentance. If motherhood has taught me anything, it has taught me that I am an unworthy sinner. And yet, God has seen fit to save me and sanctify me and even to bless me with children whom he also desires to save and sanctify.

A post on GirlTalk reminded me of that blessing with this quote from Elizabeth Prentiss' Stepping Heavenward: "Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which it dwells is worthy all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant."

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the man who shares with me the mission of training these souls. A few days ago, the kids and I spread on the grass a blanket from Jeremy's alma mater. Jair wondered if Daddy was okay with our using his blanket for a picnic. I reminded him that Daddy shares everything with Mommy, and Ali added, "Yeah, even his kids."

I'm so glad he does.