Thursday, June 10, 2010

One Year Old

In what must be a rift in the space-time continuum, Grace is one year old today. I seriously have not had a year go by faster than this last one!

We'll be having a little party this weekend, but Gracie is making her own entertainment today. As an encouragement to all new mothers of infants: take heart. I know your baby can now barely lift her head and can't see more than a foot or two in front of her. But in just a year's time, why, she'll be playing with the trashcan!


"Garbage is sooo amazing!"

You may feel like your efforts to nurture your newborn and give her a sense of her place in the world are having no effect. Well, don't worry--as you can see, Grace has adjusted well to her life on this planet.


So, hang in there. Today, she's struggling to focus on your face. In just 12 months, she'll be licking the side of your garbage can! Aren't babies just amazing things?

In honor of our Gracie's birthday, I'm reposting my first entry about her, which explains why she got her name. Happy Birthday, Grace!

Grace is here! And all is well. She's just a little over 24 hours old, and the tiniest little thing! Her head fits right in my palm--grapefruit sized. When Jason brought the kids up to meet her yesterday, it struck me anew how huge they are in comparison! I mean, Nate just looked like a Mack truck or something.

I'll post more details and pics later--I just wanted to thank everyone for their emails, blogments (did I make up a word?), calls and most of all, prayers. I don't think childbirth could've gone much more smoothly than this. Thanks also to Becky for her sweet post and all the Suburban Matron readers! It was so sweet to read what y'all wrote. We are off to a pretty good start and I am feeling great. I love this hospital--I gotta tell you. They are really wonderful here. The nurses are all just so friendly and so helpful--it's like having all these moms and big sisters around. They call me "sweetheart" and bring me tea. It feels a little like summer camp. But with stitches, less sleep and no mosquitoes. Can I stay forever?

A few years ago, when Nate was still a baby, I was sitting up in bed one night, and had this thought: Your next child will be a girl, and you should name her Grace Elaine. Another baby wasn't really on the radar yet for us, so I tucked that thought away for later. But when we found out that #3 was a girl, we had our name. Elaine is my amazing mama's middle name, and I can think of no better person to name a child after. And Grace--well, grace is one of my favorite ideas/concepts/truths. Realization of what grace is has changed my life forever. So I love that our new baby daughter will be a reminder of that for me.

I just want to include this little "definition" of grace from a spiritual perspective. I love the way that Frederick Buechner worded this, and it's this amazing truth that comes to mind when I think of why we named our little one Grace.

"After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody's much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.

Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There's no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.

A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody?

A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There's nothing you have to do. There's nothing you have to do. There's nothing you have to do.

The grace of God means something like: 'Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you.'

There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can only be yours if you'll reach out and take it.

Maybe being to reach out and take it is a gift too.”


More later. Love y'all!

12 comments:

  1. Wait, what? A year? Seriously? That went way too fast. But the trashcan licking makes me feel a lot better about the newborn shenanigans currently going on here. Yes, they will come to a bittersweet end soon enough.

    Oh and... Happy birthday Grace!

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  2. I know, a year, what?? I'm pretty sure that since Grace's birth I've only had time to unpack a suitcase and eat half a sandwich.

    But what a beauty she is and a little spark of life! I'm all teary.

    Happy Birthday to her!

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  3. Wow. An entire year has gone by. Wow.

    I wish I was there to give her a birthday smooch!

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  4. Beautiful repost for Grace's 1st Birthday. She is a darling and fun to be with. Sending hugs..
    With love, Nana

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  5. Happy Birthday Grace! I can't believe you are already one!

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  6. Happy birthday to Sweet Baby Grace! Like Nate, she has two birthdays: In North America, we heard of her birth on the 9th, while, you living in the future, insist she was born on the 10th.

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  7. How is she possibly a year old already?? I totally remember reading that post the first time, and it does NOT feel like it was a year ago! I know the feeling though, my little man is almost 6 months old, and he was only just born a minute ago.

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  8. I love the Buechner quote. Grace is a
    gift indeed! Thank you for this post and the repost. You are a gift as well!

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  9. "She'll be licking the trash can!" Hysterical! And she'll be healthy cuz dirt and germs are needed actually, right?
    Wait, you were also just celebrating your wedding anniversary--I can't believe a year has passed. Happy First birthday to Grace and her mommy.

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  10. Happy birthday to that beautiful girl! Give her a kiss for us.

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  11. I can't believe it! What happened to the past year? Unfortunately, time only speeds up as you age. She is beautiful. Please give her a birthday kiss and hug from us.

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  12. I literally thought you were joking in the post when you said it was her birthday. Oh man! But, yay for being ONE! Woohooo!

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