4:41 p.m. Today's project was to rest a bit after a late night of waiting up for my friend DeAnna's granddaughter to be born, praying along with my sister until Charlott made her appearance at 11:26 p.m.! I am sure that her mother Jamie can relate to Jesus' words in John 16:21 after about 16 hours of labor:
A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her time has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
As the evening wore on, I also occupied myself by playing a few pitiful games of Mahjong on my computer and watching "Say Yes to the Dress," where brides and their entourages come to a huge New York bridal store and battle it out until the perfect dress is selected. And I don't want to forget the show "Four Weddings," where four brides attend each others' weddings and the highest scoring bride wins a fabulous honeymoon. Imagine all of the snide remarks that competition generates! I don't think any grand prize is worth all that stress and jealousy!
My mind is certainly on weddings these days, because I am searching out various items for our daughter Heidi that she doesn't have time to check into, like cake toppers or best deals on florists and reception vendors. So far, some major decisions have been made, but we have until June for the wedding, so there's no panic to influence the planning--or cause costly errors.
One fun project I'm undertaking is putting together a first anniversary digital album for Kriss and Marisela, who were married on September 27, 2009, at the Clarke Estate in Santa Fe Springs. With wedding, engagement, and fun pictures, I have compiled 82 photos on Snapfish.
I am not happy at this point with the front cover, so later today, I'll go back and delete what is there. That's the great advantage of digital photography--mistakes can be corrected ahead of time. The company puts the pictures and captions together in a beautiful book perfect for a first anniversary, where the traditional gift is paper. Heather and Nick enjoyed the one I made on Shutterfly for them last year. I racked up a pretty good migraine as a first timer not knowing what on earth to do, staring at the computer for four hours straight, but once I got the hang of it, I later made a small album of our travels for Steve's Christmas gift.
Now we have reached the stage of enjoying the reward of having raised children in the Lord. But no one will say parenting is easy! Parents do have difficult times with our children as they grow to be their own persons, following the path God has laid out for them as believers, even if that path has scary twists and turns! We may be at fault for "picturing" the type of person they are destined to be, even the kind of job they'll do or ministry they'll be best at. We may be a little slow at releasing them into independent adulthood and allowing them to make their own mistakes. We may blame ourselves or doubt our own sanity at times...But the love God gives us for them is deeper than any momentary heartache or worry!
At times of grave concern, I am reminded by the Holy Spirit that I need to let them make Proverbs 3:5-6 their own, as my own mom did when I ran off to Colorado in 1972 to live the "hippie" lifestyle:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Thank you, Lord, that You alone have the true picture of any of us, and You love us anyway!
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