Tuesday

It was a beautiful day in the front yard (check out the 3 crosses!) ~

~ and a beautiful day in the backyard (3 birds!)

What made the day even more beautiful is that it is the day that an amazing little girl named Greta was born! Eight years ago today we welcomed a precious baby girl “burrito” into our family! The first thing I noticed about her were her chunky little cheekies! In those first few moments of totally taking another healthy infant completely for granted, I tried to imagine life here on out with this new little life. Who will she be? What will she look like as she grows up?

My imaginings came no where close to this astounding little girl that Greta has grown up into. The extraordinary intuition and empathy packed into this little girl’s heart cannot be contained. She is absolutely overflowing with love and compassion for not just people, but also animals and even insects! She recently captured a leaf bug with an injured wing so he could rehab safely without getting eaten or further injured.

This is a little girl who instead of getting hurt and bent out of shape about someone being mean to her, is able to look past that. “Maybe (who ever) is having a really bad day, or maybe someone is always mean to them too and they don’t know any different. That makes me sad for them,” she’s been known to say. At which point I have to pull out her birth certificate (with tears in my eyes) to double check that she isn’t actually OLDER than me, because clearly she’s WISER than me in that regard!!! Lesson from Greta: Don’t take everything so personally!

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
(Leviticus 19:18)

What a PERFECT big sister for a baby with special needs. Someone who will guard her and protect her with a vengeance throughout their sweet lives. The radiant love that Nora and Greta have for each other is such a magnificent thing to witness. Such pure love can hardly be put into words except to say that it is God given.

We love because he first loved us.
(John 4:19)

So sheik!

Nora had a visit from her physical therapist and her nutritionist today. I was a little disheartened to learn that Nora has decreased her weight a little bit. In July she was 18 lbs. 1 oz. At the beginning of August she weighed in at 17 lbs. 13 oz. which was only a few ounces lost. She’d had 2 ear infections, antibiotics and lots of pukies. Today she weighed in at 17 lbs. 5 oz. My heart sank at the sight of the scale’s reading. But like the dietician explained, it’s not unexplained weight loss. She’s had the ear infections, then a cold, and she’s also shown a decrease in volume probably because she wasn’t feeling her greatest. (We keep a very detailed record of her feedings) Nora’s physical therapist also assured me that Nora is of course metabolizing more now too. She’s a little more active than she used to be. She’s not content to just lean up against us or the back of her Tumbleform chair. She likes to hold her head up on her own! She’s rolling around and reaching and kicking at things! Since her body is in need of more calories we’ve decided to supplement her with coconut oil and then olive oil. We are gradually working toward a tablespoon per day of coconut oil right now. That will contribute 117 more calories a day in addition to all of the other great attributes it has (regularity, brain boosting, immunity).

As William also pointed out, and the nutritionist verified – our other kids could have undergone a weight loss at some point in their lives too. A year between doctor visits would not have shown anything. Because we are watching Nora under a figurative microscope we are going to see and notice every single little discrepancy.

I made the decision to extinguish the cluster of fear that was smoldering in my gut and enjoy the rest of my day.

Happy birthday to the birthday girl!

Hmmmm… What to wish for…

And the day ended just as beautifully as it began.

And the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22 NIV)

Do you see it?