when the time comes...

Well Annabeth, I really meant to write you on time this month but the days always get away from me. It's hard for me to believe that we are ending another year together. I think back to this time two years ago when we were just starting out on our journey, and so much has happened between now and then. People warned me that life would go by faster once you showed up. It's true, so I can only imagine how quickly time will pass when we add your little sister to the mix. 

Since my last post we found out you're having a baby sister, we celebrated Thanksgiving, we put up Christmas decorations, we had a record breaking snow fall, and you've continued to do and say a plethora of cute things. You've also used the potty on your own a time or two, so I think you're getting closer to figuring it out. We're going to work on it soon, and I am hopeful it will go smoothly. If there's one thing I really appreciate about you it's that you easily adapt to new things. We've never had to struggle through changes with you, and that has been so helpful considering every change you go through is a new experience to us. 

I've stored up a lot of favorite memories over the past month and figure I better record a few here so that I don't forget. Thanksgiving was a sweet day. You did a great job hosting our company and keeping everyone entertained. You even ate a decent amount of food, which is a big accomplishment for you since you hardly eat. As soon as we finished praying for our meal and headed into the kitchen to eat you yelled, "Yay! It's my birthday!" Of course, a month earlier when we celebrated your birthday we did have a similar set up. I think it's hilarious you assume large family gathering mean we are celebrating your birthday. Luckily for you, you're the center of attention regardless. You'll have to learn to share the spotlight soon. You also enjoyed playing in the snow with your dad. We've had a few small snow storms since your birth but this one dropped around 10 inches of beautiful, powdery snow. I hate cold weather and am an indoors girl, so your dad made sure you were able to experience the fun of snow. He drove you to the store to buy boots and a snow jacket, and you had a great time stomping all over the back yard while eating snow. You two built a snowman, and I got some really cute pictures that you'll appreciate when you're older. I believe you would have stayed out there all day if we would have let you. I love your fearlessness and zeal for life. In fact, I told a friend that all of the traits you have are the ones I wish I possessed. God has given you such a fun personality, and I know you'll be a girl who lives life to the fullest and doesn't miss out on a good time. 

You've really embraced Christmas this year. You've been impressed by all of the decorations, the music, and Santa. You love one of our nativity sets and baby Jesus and the angel (who you refer to as "mommy") are your favorite figurines. Christmas is a precious time of year, and your dad and I are trying to find ways to make this season so special and memorable while keeping our focus on Christ. It's easy to get sucked in to the commercialism, and I know that will be a bigger challenge the older you get, but for now you are enthralled by the simple things and for that I am grateful. My goal is to keep the season simple but full with meaning and traditions that draw us back to the manger again and again. 

I spent a little time looking through your baby pictures last night and marveled at how much you've changed and accomplished since our first Christmas as a family. Truth be told, it wasn't one of my favorite Christmases. There's so much emphasis on "baby's first Christmas" but a two month old baby doesn't really care whether or not it's Christmas. Each one gets sweeter and sweeter, and frankly, I am glad that baby phase is behind us. But you, like me, will probably spend many years of your life desiring to grow up fast. I think we all do that for a good bit of life because there's this great assumption that it will "get better." But then we look back and see that we did have it pretty good because each stage of life brings new challenges. Earlier in the week I told you that each time you sleep you grow and so you need to sleep if you're going to be a big girl. You didn't argue about that and when I woke you up this morning you said, "I grow, Mommy! I a big girl!" And you're getting there, but don't feel like you need to get there too quickly.

I want you to know that you have my permission to grow up in no hurry. You have my permission to live out each stage of life and enjoy it rather than rushing to the next. You have my permission to embrace where you are rather than embracing the pressures of getting somewhere else before necessary. I've been asked multiple times when you'll be potty trained or when you'll be moved out of your crib, and my answer is "when the time comes." I'm in no rush one way or another because you're 2 years old, not 20 years old. There will come a day when you no longer need to wear a diaper. And there will come a day when you no longer fit in your crib. There will come a day when you don't marvel at Christmas lights or scream with zeal, "it's a baby Christmas tree!" when you see a small tree. There will come a day when you can do all the big girl things on your own and you won't need me 24/7. That's how it's supposed to happen. And then there will be moments when you want to hurry up and drive or date or graduate high school or go to college. And then you'll want to hurry and meet the right man so you can marry him and hurry to land that dream job and hurry to have babies. And then you'll look up and say, "Woah! How did I already get to this point in my life? To the point where I have checked off most of those boxes that seemed so far away?" Well, my advice you is that you don't rush. My advice is that you let things happen as they happen because if it's God's will for you, they will happen when the time comes. 

That's how God works. We see it in the Christmas story birth of our Savior, Jesus. His mom, Mary, (not the angel although I'm sure she was a really precious woman) and her husband Joseph went to Bethlehem. Mary was at the end of her pregnancy and by that point, every woman is more than ready to give birth! Being pregnant is magical but when you reach the stage when you can't see your toes or tie your shoes, you're about done being a human incubator. The thing is, people had been waiting on the birth of Jesus for a really long time. An extremely long time. And so the story tells us that when they finally made it to Bethlehem (after an incredibly long donkey ride, I might add), "the time came for the baby to be born." (Luke 2:6) All of that waiting and expectation and it was here. The time had come, and into the night rang out the cries of baby Jesus. He had come! Emmanuel, God with us. Stepping down from his heavenly throne, he had joined us on earth. God wasn't rushing the process. He wasn't trying to get it over quickly. There was a lot of waiting and passing of time and he could have come at any time, but this was the right time. I don't know what was "right" about it, but God brings things to pass at the moment in which He intends for His greater purpose. 

Like you and me, Jesus grew and experienced life and I truly believe that's what God desires for us. That we enjoy our days while we're here on earth rather than wishing them away. The time will come when these days have passed. They will be no more. You won't be a little girl forever.  It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. And so enjoy it while you can. And enjoy where God has you until the time comes for something else. It all goes quickly, and the more you soak it up and relish in the season of life you're living, the more thankful you'll be when it comes time to move on to the next. 

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