Your Momma :)

I wrote this post to Griffin back in September of 2008 when he wasn't even born yet. Great memories that I'll cherish the rest of my life.
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September 10,2008

Is crackin' me up! This morning I took a break from studying and went back to the bathroom where she was getting ready. She was standing there looking in the mirror with this depressed look on her face and I busted in the bathroom, grabbed her and began to dance with her to the song playing on the radio. She quickly told me to quit because her belly was hurting and then proceeded to explain the reasoning for the depressed look. She said, "I can't fit into my pants anymore", in somewhat of a pouty tone and I couldn't help it, but just laughed! She told me to "Shutup", and then I reminded her that she was pregnant and she said, "I know, but that's just the first pair of pants I can't fit into", again in a pouty tone. And again I couldn't help but crack up! I just stood back and simply watched her. She's beautiful in everything she does. Her fiery emotions and spirit, her cute looks of frustration, and then every once in a while, the way she cuddles up looking up at me just wanting some attention and affection. She's truly one of kind, an all around girl, and the woman I've always dreamed about as my wife.

It amazing to see your momma become a woman right before my eyes. Not in a mother sense, as in having a baby is making her a woman, although it is, but rather embracing responsibility which seems to prune us into adults. Never before had she had to cook, clean, do laundry, sweep floors, water plants, take care of a needy ole' man, etc. But she's beginning to embrace these things realizing that life in a marriage requires a team of two working in the same direction to keep a household functioning. She nor I don't always have the same direction in mind, but we always work it out. You know, I've come to see that all people will fight and have problems as they are inevitable, but for the believer...it's how you fight, how you handle problems, and how you go about reconciling to one another, that's the difference. We are still learning and we have so much further to go, but we understand that we're both sinners and that our initial reaction is to be selfish in everything and so we try to approach each situation with this understanding, so that we are able to forgive freely not holding grudges, but knowing that our sins are far greater in extent and number for which Christ died, and those offenses are far greater than that which we could ever do to one another. And so, it's this that enables us to fight well, to wade through problems well, and learn from each of these knowing that yes, we will fall again and yes, we will have other trials, but we will be gracious, loving, and kind to each other through these because Christ was all these and more to both of us.

You're momma's not perfect in what we know and understand to be perfection, but she's perfect to every degree in my mind. Just as I said, she's beautiful in all she does and I've found that it's the times in the valley with her that make her that much more attractive to me. The trials and tribulation we embrace together give an understanding and appreciation which none could know unless they've traveled that road daily with us. But upon traveling, if one can remain focused on who they are in Christ and the certainty of His promises, this will enable one to endure with a richness and sweetness of understanding and outlook upon life and they will be able to embrace the truly significant things...the fruit of life, while letting all else fall aside. I've best heard it put in Lance Armstrong's book, "It's not about the Bike", when he was told by another cancer patient upon receiving one of his first cancer treatments, "You don't know it yet, but we are the lucky ones..."

Lucky, I would disagree... but Blessed? You better believe, that, I am!