Precious Baby

As a baby, Amanda loved teething on corn cobs. I took this picture of her in 2009. Isn’t she just adorable? Many people are born out of unplanned pregnancies and Amanda is one of them. Does that make them less precious? Do they have less purpose? As you can see, we have been immensely blessed to have this child in our lives.

Below I have added previous stories related to the challenges and blessings of having another child. They are listed in order from top to bottom:

• Thinking About Having Another Child
• Surprise, I'm Pregnant!
• Celebrating Our Fourth Child
• Blessed to Have You in Our Life

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Never Underestimate Your Kids

Amanda and her big brother, Jeremiah, have a special bond. When we first shared our news with the kids that I was pregnant with our fourth child, Jeremiah was so thrilled that he ran to tell his friends who lived nearby. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how the kids would react to the news and so I was a little surprised that he was so excited.

Yesterday, Amanda told me about a conversation that her brother had with her. She told me that he had said how adorable and precious she was. She then told him how special he was to her. As she was telling me this, I could see that it touched her deeply. Amanda finished off by saying, “It was so sad.”

I asked her, “Don’t you mean ‘so sweet?’”

“No, Mom. It was sad. You can be happy and sad at the same time.”

Her choice of words was unusual, but I realized that she was speaking about something touching her so deeply that it almost hurt. I had explained to her before in movies why some people cry when they’re very happy. Later I told Jeremiah the odd thing she had said and he replied, “She’s a philosopher.”

Never underestimate your kids’ abilities to understand and reason no matter how young they are. I think adults in general are too quick to brush kids aside thinking they are too young to say anything of value and therefore don’t need to be heard. I have known my kids to say profound things at just the right moments.

I recommend you read (if you haven’t already), “Out of the Mouths of Babes.”

I took the above photo of Jeremiah with his baby sister, Amanda, in 2008.

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Broken, but Precious

Amanda has a Baby Born doll that she loves so much that she doesn’t mind that its arms have fallen off. Her little friend, who comes and plays almost everyday, mentioned that her mommy throws broken toys away, implying that I should do the same. It probably bothered her to see this armless baby doll being played with (like one of those scary broken toys from the Toy Story movies). It sometimes bothers me too, but Amanda loves it no matter how it looks, so I don’t have the heart to throw it out.

Yesterday morning we watched “Soul Surfer.” The movie is based on the true story of Bethany Hamilton who lost her arm to a shark attack. At one point in the story she was asked a very important question by a reporter. He wanted to know if she could go back to that day, would she change anything. She replied, “I could never have embraced this many people with two arms.”

The lesson in this is that sometimes we are too quick to throw something away just because it’s broken. Just because it’s broken doesn’t mean that it’s no longer precious or that it has become useless. The same goes for people. We are all capable of great things no matter how broken we may be on the inside or the outside. Give what you have with courage and let God do the rest.

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