Lesson Learned (Hopefully)

I believe in God. And I try my hardest to live my life for Him. I am not very good at it at times, but I do try! It is said that all you need is to have “faith like a child.” When I stop to think about it, I do feel that this is true. But sometimes a “child”-like faith gets you into trouble. Well if you’re me it does.


A little after Miriam turned 2 1/2 she learned the word: Why? (Even, as I type this I can hear her little voice in my head) If you are a parent, you know how incredibly annoying this question can get when it is repeated throughout the day. And like most parents out there, I usually end the long list of “whys?” with, “BECAUSE I AM THE MOTHER, THAT’S WHY!!!” (I have waited my whole life to use that. Ha!)

Well like a child, I have been known to whine to my Father, “Why?” “Why?” “Why?” I have asked why to so many troubles and “bumps in the road” that have not been in MY life plan. “WHY did this person lie to me?” “WHY did you take my mom away?” “WHY did this or that happen?” “WHY? WHY? WHY? …” The list really does go on and on. Like most parents, God has tried being patient with me, throughout the years he has generally shown me answers to my questions.

Yet, there is me who keeps asking and asking. The more I found myself asking “Why?,” the more I felt I was entitled to an answer. And when I didn’t get one or it wasn’t the answer I wanted, I became an angry temper tantrum throwing 2 yr old. Not a pretty sight. Anger, bitterness and rage were taking over my life.

Lately, I felt him get a bit annoyed and he finally yelled, “BECAUSE I AM THE FATHER, THAT’S WHY!”

You see God doesn’t need to answer any of my questions, he is GOD. He can do as he likes!  I am the child and like a child I should just TRUST that he is directing my life in a way that a loving parent would. He is there to protect me and promises to not bring harm to me. (What more do I need.)

Most of you who KNOW me, know that it is not easy for me to trust anyone, even God. Well these past few weeks I have been trying to listen to him and be obedient. He has provided me with many opportunities to release the “reins” of my life and have faith in him. Because I am new to this there have been a few days where I tried to be old Jaime, but God has whispered to me and I have listened and let go. When I feel the need to burden him with a Why or the same prayer over again, I have heeded to what I learned from my devotional and just simply said,

“God, thank you for the answers that are yet to come!”

There is so much peace I feel throughout the last couple of days because of my submission. I am thankful to Him for being a patient and (unconditionally) loving parent.

Over a Year...

And I am sure we have totally lost our few followers. I can't believe I haven't posted since October of 2009. Wow! I will be making a point to try and update this more frequently.

Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday we went to Smith Family Farms. Miriam had such a great time running around the farm looking at animals and picking her pumpkin.

MJ's Baby

I have been wondering if Miriam carried any type of mothering instinct in her. Well, today proved she does. Miriam has taken to swaddling, feeding and even patting her baby. This evening she carried the baby around for over 30 minutes. (Which for her is an enormous amount of time to do the same activity)
It's so cute to watch. We are hoping all this practice helps her become a great big sister!

MJ's New Room

Over the last few weeks Lee and I have been preparing Miriam's big girl room. Lee built the side rail for the twin bed, hung the curtains and MJ's picture. We have been taking Miriam into the room to read books on her bed and just get comfortable in there. She loves it! On Tuesday my OCD/ pre-nesting kicked in and I just had a need to finish hanging things. Lee however wasn't that thrill to be "working" on his days off. But because he loves me and MJ sooooo much he let it go and hung up some more pictures and her name.

We didn't have a timeline on when to move MJ in there, but after getting everything done we decided to let her take a nap in there on Wednesday. She did so well!! And after nap we officially moved her in. Lee grabbed her clothes from the closet, Mj grabbed her books for her book shelf and I grabbed the diapers and wipes. :o) She spent her first night in there and slept soundly. What a blessing.

The finished product:

Miriam loves taking her own dirty clothes to the hamper, it is her first real chore. We are using the desk as her changing table. Here is our 17 month old baby, acting like a big girl.
Now the nursery is truly plain and boring. Oh well time to start planning our Baby Boy's jungle room. ;o)

Daddy's Girl

We all know that Miriam is our little girly girl. Lately it has gotten worse. See for yourself:

MJ giving Daddy a pedicure: (she will even swipe a nail polish bottle across your toes to paint them)
MJ putting eyeshadow on Daddy:

Poor Lee!! However, it is all worth it when your non-cuddling daughter decides she wants to give you loves!

Easter & Animals

For Easter this year we celebrated at our house. The family came over for a early dinner and then we went to the evening service at church. Miriam's GG and G-PA (Lee's grandparents) gave her a very pretty Easter basket. Here she is asking me (signing "please") to open it. Miriam also went on her first Easter egg hunt and wore her first Easter dress. She has enjoyed playing with the eggs this week. Today we hunted for them in her room.
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Lately Miriam has really been into her books. One of her favorites is a picture book of different animals. Lee and I are not only teaching her what each animal is but if we can we add sound effects or facial expressions to them. So far MJ has copied us in sounding like an elephant and sticking out her "lizard" tongue. Since she has taken to the animal images we wanted to take her to see them in person.

On Tuesday we went to Discovery Kingdom (aka Marine World). Here Miriam got to see dolphins, Shouka the killer whale, giraffes, elephants, lions, tigers, etc. Because she is only 14 months I am not to sure what she liked best but she did smile when Shouka jumped out of the water.

She didn't seem to like the shark tank to much, so I don't think we will be going to an aquarium any time soon. Miriam did so well all day however she did get a little tired. Here is our little safari explorer napping in her stroller.