CHRISTmas

What a peaceful Christmas morning. After a good night's sleep, I nursed our daughter in the peaceful silence of 5:30am and laid her back in her bed before reading the story of Jesus' birth. As I mentioned in my last post, we attended Christmas Eve service at church last night and I heard a beautiful song for the first time, Labor of Love by Andrew Peterson. (Link to a youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYjYi4tYvXu ) I cannot imagine how Mary was feeling that first year. Here was a teenage girl about to be married who suddenly finds herself pregnant. Then she has to travel to Bethlehem with her new husband while very pregnant. To top it all off, she goes into labor in a town she is unfamiliar with and her mother is not there with her (or any other relatives), no birth attendant or midwife. Does she know what to do? And what about the Jesus finally does arrive, will she get the hang of breast feeding? Who besides her husband can she lean and rely upon. (Hint: GOD) What a perfect set up for somebody to learn how to fully rely on GOD. If only we could have that same complete and total trust in and reliance upon GOD.

Josiah got to do something special for Jesus' birthday this morning, he ate cake for breakfast!! This is the kids who we usually don't let have refined sugar in this manner as he has enough energy already without exponentially increasing it. He was a little crazy today, but not too bad.

We topped the day off with a visit to my folks house and spent some time with them along with my sister and bro-in-law. It's crazy to think that we won't be seeing them for the next six months, at least not in person. This is the family that I would see on at least a monthly basis and talk with at least on a weekly basis. Thank God for technology and the information age; we got my Dad a webcam for Christmas and plan to Skype (if you've never heard of it, check it out at www.skype.com) each other on a regular basis. My head is starting to spin thinking of some of the changes that will be happening the next six months, so time to go pray and sleep.