Thursday, May 12, 2011

Reflections thus far...

Almost six months into the year and I find myself thinking about the word the Lord gave me for this year. I have claimed that word over all aspects of our life this year, over me personally, over my family and over Karter. “Blue Skies Ahead...Unlocking new beginnings”

I found myself with a few moments to myself this afternoon, an odd commodity for sure. Karter was napping, my work was done and I found myself with time for reflecting. I read a great devotional about God’s timing and how He can accelerate things that for us could take years.

This has been a great year of new things for Karter. The preparation for kindergarten is one of the things that have gotten me the most excited (yet I am having such a hard time wrapping my head around – I am going to miss him all day). I am excited for his adventures in his new school, with new friends and new teachers. I am excited for him to learn new things and be pushed in ways that I cannot push him. But that is September, we are talking about now.

Karter has become so social this year. He is making eye contact with his peers and with adults. He waves when cued to say “hi” or “good-bye”. He has also started to really communicate his needs to us. He rubs his eyes when you ask him if it is time to go “night-night”. He grabs for his food dish on his tray when he wants to be fed. He chooses between two snacks at snack time. He pushes his milk cup away when he is done or when I wipe his face he grabs and pushes my hand away. These are all such great examples of his progress.

Physically, we see new things in Karter; besides the obvious that he is getting bigger ;-). He is still riding once a week and although he does not love it, we have really noticed a difference in his core strength because of it. He has a chair at home that he sits in without falling over now – so great! He is also in his walker each preschool morning. He complains a lot but he will now bare some weight on his legs when I make him stand up – this is good – REALLY good! His one to one support teacher even told me that the other day when he was in his walker in the gym, they put a big purple ball in front of him and each time they did he lifted his leg to kick it – COOL!

He is eating and chewing so well these days, drinking through a straw a so much more; I could probably go on for another three paragraphs, there are new things happening all the time! All these things are just wonderful reminders that God is still in control and is very much at work in Karter’s life. Although this road has been long God has the ability to accelerate it at any point. When? Not for me to ask really. My job is to trust, to be thankful in all things, big and small and to live in the expectation that God is bigger than ALL of this.

Pause...exhale...

When I think about that, it brings such joy to my heart. God has been SO good to us! He has blessed and provided for us far beyond what we ever asked. Actually, that leads me to something else we have been talking about... so I will digress at bit... God promised to provide for our needs right? So why then do we still ask for those things, why don’t we just trust that they are met? I am starting to ask for the bigger things; things more than just our needs...ok, now that is another topic for sure. ..

I can truly say the skies have been bluer these days; maybe not outdoors, but certainly in our lives. Each new thing is a blessings a true gift. Big or small, we are aware of them all. I have said it over and over but it can never be enough, God is good and He is faithful in every part of our lives! AMEN?

I have come to a place in my life where I can finally say with confidence that I love that He has done things differently than I may have expected or wanted. He has taken us on a journey that I am not sure we would have ever travelled were it not for the twists and turns of these past few years. I have learned so much more than if my life would have gone “according to plan”.

I say it often “I love the journey, I would just change the circumstances”. That is really the truth, but that said, even the circumstances have taught us so much. I think we all have things in life, tough times, unplanned things, that shape who we are and we become thankful for them in spite of how hard they are or how they have put a wrench in the original plan. That original plan probably wasn’t God’s best for us anyhow. That does not mean I believe that God wants bad things to happen or that He chooses them for us, I just mean that His bigger plan is something that we cannot see in today. But we have the choice to trust Him in spite of it and to allow Him to reveal His true purposes for us.

Anyhow, those were my reflections of today. We continue to move forward, sometimes faster and other times at a snail’s pace, but no matter what, we are moving forward and for that we are thankful. I love the ability to live in anticipation of what God will do in and through Karter and in all of us as well. So we keep living the journey and loving the steps along the way; thankful for what we see today and living in expectation for what tomorrow will bring.

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