so thankful

for this little fellow! he turned one on wednesday and we smile at the wisdom and care of our Heavenly Father seen even in this one's small life. we were shocked to find out i was pregnant with graham in the first place. we spent the last month of pregnancy in and out of the hospital on strict bedrest, but he made it to term just barely and he was 8.5lbs! we returned to the hospital at 2 weeks with viral meningitis. he weaned himself cold-turkey a couple weeks ago ( maybe he will potty-train himself too?). he keeps us on our toes:)

we are so thankful for him and the joys he has brought to our little family...we call him our "little scalawag." here are a few photos of his life thus far. the only gift we got him is this nice fuzzy fleece and we will celebrate with our neighbors next week.

we had graham's ortho appointment yesterday. all our children will likely be followed for their first year to make sure they don't have hip dysplasia since Marit's was so severe. anyway, our wonderful orthopedist took one look at graham's beautiful x-ray and said with a grin "that's all i need to see. he doesn't need me until he breaks his arm." though this is what we expected, we do not want to take this wonderful grace for granted. we are so thankful that graham has healthy femoral heads and acetabulums and we praise God for it. isn't he just precious?

sleeping woes

today is monday and i am thankful. really i am. we are extravagantly loved by our heavenly Father. last weekend we traveled for a quick family reunion to meet my cousin's beautiful new wife and to see other cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters etc. it was fun, but resulted in serious sleep deprivation for the munchkins. since our return, graham has completely weaned himself and now sleeps all night. this is wonderful, truly. however, marit has really been struggling with her sleep. she has always been a great sleeper and does really well with bedtime ritual going to sleep on her own for TWELVE hours a night and usually a 2-3 hr nap. until last weekend. she has suddenly begun to scream hysterically before going to sleep. we thought she was afraid of the dark, so we put up globe chain lights. we frequently return to her (every 20ish minutes) to remind her of how much she is loved by us and by Jesus and to lay her back down. she is so tired. she frequently falls asleep if we drive for any length of time and her voice is hoarse. we struggle to know if she is manipulating us (we have been through those phases too) or if she is really afraid of something. the other night, she was finally quiet and we found her sound asleep like this:


isn't that so sad? pray for us to have wisdom to extend the love of Jesus to our dear daughter and to help her get the sleep she needs...

driscoll on idolatry