7 months with Maggie

Seven months later, Mike and I have learned a few things about parenting that I thought you might enjoy...

1. We don't know anything about parenting.

2. We thought we knew a lot about parenting.
We read good books, some bad books, and studied the Bible diligently to prepare us for this massive responsibility. It was really cute - the two of us laying in bed at night, propping up the books against my big belly, reading and praying and romanticizing the joys of parenting... ah, ignorance is bliss!

3. With every passing day, we learn even more that we don't have the answers or the intelligence (and after months of sleep deprivation, the brain cells are gone too) to figure out the answers on our own.

4. Our parenting skills have come down to this: absolute dependence on God's mercy, grace, and wisdom.
We simply cannot persevere on our own - if we try, we end up cranky, frustrated, angry, and tired. But if we are begging God for mercy, relying on his strength, and asking for his wisdom, we are given grace, kindness, patience, and mercy to extend to our little princess...and yes, we're still tired. But through the exhaustion, Jesus walks with us, and helps us love and serve Maggie, even at 3 a.m... we want to love her like HE would.

5. We've done almost everything we said we would never do as parents.
For instance, I said I would never sleep with my baby. We broke that on night one. We said we wouldn't use a pacifier. Broke that on night one. We were going to let her cry it out and have her sleeping through the night by 7 weeks. 7 months later, she's still waking up at all hours, and my ears and mommy-heart can't handle the endurance of my daughter's vocal chords! She could be the next great opera singer, seriously. I wasn't going to be that parent that had the cranky kid in the restaurant after church on Sunday. Been there, done that, got the angry looks from single people. I wasn't going to go out in public with a snotty nosed kid. Enter teething, and the perpetual snotty nose -- I can't stay home 24/7 just because she's got some nasal discharge! HA! So yes, all of these and so many more "we'll never do's" have been done, and surprise, surprise: we are all still alive!

6. It is truly amazing how great the love of a parent is for the child!
I never, ever knew how entirely possible it is to love someone so deeply that you would stand in front of a train to protect them while at the same time being so angry with them for screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night that you would consider selling them to the lowest bidder on eBay... but I love my little angel SO much, and even when she's not happy with me, with herself, or with life in general - this amazing, deep love keeps me in awe of the fact that this little blue eyed, red-headed precious baby is actually mine to keep, love, and enjoy. (Until some boy comes along and tries to steal her away from me. At which point, I will need lots of therapy. But since we're not letting her get married til she's 40, I'm ok for the moment.)