Wherein I gush with parental pride

I am so proud of my daughter. It is exciting to see her personality emerging and the goodness of her heart being expressed throuh her actions.

She loves to share with her little sister. Although sometimes this is problematic (say, when there's an extra Easter basket or rice heat pack to share), Abbie is getting really good at making sure Karis has a toy to play with. Whenever Karis cries, Abbie is the first to bound over to her, coo "Oh, Karis!" and give her a comforting hug and kiss (before commanding, "Mommy, feed Karis!"--ha!)

Abbie has also been practicing doing very grown-up things lately. She's working on getting her baby doll into a nap routine; she puts her in a diaper, nurses the baby, then puts the baby to sleep in Karis' bassinet. Then she announces to me in a whisper "Baby sleeping." The best part, of course, is watching her sit in my rocking chair and nurse her baby. I must be raising her right!

And then there's her frequent desire to pray. As a family, we've always prayed before meals and before bed, but recently I've added prayers once or twice a day for sick people in our church, or just people who are on my heart. Apparently, this has inspired Abbie. Sometimes in the middle of a meal she'll reach out her arms to Matt and me and say "Pray!" Then we all hold hands, bow our heads (yes, she bows her head too) and thank Jesus or tell Him we love Him. Sometimes I'll say, "I love you, Jesus" and she'll add "SO much." !!!!!!!!!!! I love that she understands who Jesus is and knows that she can talk to Him anytime she wants. (So to all the nay-sayers against infant baptism--yes, my 2 year old has indeed been brought into the grace of God and is becoming a disciple of Christ.) She challenges me to grow closer to the Lord, too...and to have faith like a child.

What can I say?

This is the question that has kept me from posting during the last few days/weeks. I'm now married to a high-profile man (relatively speaking) and I have no idea who's reading my blog, and if or how much my opinions, frustrations, disagreements, ramblings, etc. will "reflect" on him, and in what way. I feel like I should just lay it out there: this is my blog and the opinions I express are wholly my own. If you're reading this to spy on my husband, you've come to the wrong place. And if you read something that insults you or ruffles your feathers, talk to me about it--don't go to him.

Don't get me wrong--I love Dingmans Ferry. Everyone we've met has been friendly and hospitable, and we've felt very welcomed. The area is much more remote than I'm used to, but it's beginning to grow on me. The more I see of it (one of the church guys took Matt and me off-roading in his Jeep on Monday--SO awesome) the more I fall in love with the area. I've seen more deer and turkies than I have in years, not to mention the family of Canada geese crossing the road in a straight line and the tiny turtle sunning itself on a rock. It's really charming.

And the parsonage is surprisingly wonderful. It's so much bigger than our Wilmore house, with so many closets and kitchen cabinets we barely know what to do with them!

I guess I just needed to lay my cards on the table. Ever since I said some negative stuff in a previous post about Matt not getting commissioned for ordination (which I changed after hearing indirectly from a blog lurker through Matt that it was a touchy subject and I shouldn't bring it up), I've felt hesitant about expressing my opinions, especially if they're negative. Especially about the UM church. And believe me, I have a LOT of disagreements with the UM church! However, I believe that the Lord called Matt to be a minister of the Gospel through the UM church, at least for this time in our lives. And when we got married, I promised Matt that his people would be my people.

But I digress.

Bottom line: I like it here. I love the church and the house, and I'm really looking forward to serving DFUMC as a layperson while seeing how the Lord uses Matt's gifts and talents for His glory and the Church's edification. However, I reserve the right to express my opinions in this blog, and respectfully ask that anyone reading/lurking would respect that right without assuming that what I think/say reflects negatively on my husband in any way.

Thank you for reading. I look forward to you journeying with me (although silently, which seems to be the case for many of you!) as I continue to grow as a person, wife, mother, and daughter of God in the coming months.