Acts 9: 1-9

The Kindergarten class will be leading the school Mass this week. #1 was assigned to do part of the first reading. I should note that some schools change the scheduled readings for the younger grades in order for them to be easier to read. Our school does not do that and not all of the words and concepts were easy to pronounce and understand. She's had a lot of questions about what this all means and seems to have a pretty good understanding now.

For the Mass, the kids, of course, have the readings in front of them, so they just practice for fluidity. Today, I asked her to go get her paper so we could practice some more and she said "I think I actually have it memorized." So I told her to go for it. This was the result.

She was already pretty excited for Friday, but now she's uber-excited.

With Children Comes Grace

I ran into a mother at my daughter's school today who just figured out I'm expecting my fourth child. She launched into a fairly familiar speech I hear nearly every day. Some of the common statements mothers with larger families hear include:

"I don't know how you do it! I can barely manage the 1 (or 2) I have!"

"You're amazing!"

"Are you crazy?"

"You have your hand full."

"Did you do this on purpose?" (or some version of this question)

"How do you do it?"

Most of the time, when people say these things, I'm not bothered. Instead, I smile as I remember feeling the exact same way. I remember quite clearly, when I had only one child, seriously contemplating not having any more because it was literally the hardest thing I'd ever done and I wasn't sure I had it in me to handle two of them. I remember the occasional bursts of anxiety when I was pregnant with each of the first three children, wondering if I would actually make it through the next 20+ years without spontaneously com-busting. How on earth would I raise each of these children successfully into adulthood??

Now, pregnant with my fourth, I'm not at all worried. It took me three children, but I FINALLY figured out the secret.

No child comes into this world empty handed. Each and every one comes bearing an abundance of gifts from the Lord. With every one, I have a little more experience under my belt, a little more confidence, a little more strength to make it through each day. God sends each of these children to their parents with an entire bucket filled with GRACE! I finally have tangible evidence of what I knew intellectually, but did not fully trust until now. He would never give me one of His own children without providing me with everything I need to properly care for and raise that child. Whether it be 1, 2...7 or 8, the Lord provides the tools.

These incredible gifts that each of my children have brought to my life make me infinitely grateful. Pushing aside my fears and replacing them with faith has brought me more grace and joy than I could have ever thought possible.

More Mud

The latest craze in running seems to be these obstacle races. Mud, fire, climbing, push-ups, etc., etc. Every running events group is doing one now and Micah has caught the bug along with everyone else. He says it's more exciting than just running down the road. I just nod my head, smile and take pictures.

This past weekend he competed in the Warrior Dash - three miles and the usual obstacles. He managed to convince a few co-workers and family members to join him as well. Micah placed 2nd in his heat, 7th out of 820 in his age group and 45th out of 7222 overall for the day.

Not bad!

The girls and I stood at the mud pit at the end because it's where we can get the most exciting views. They remembered, from the last race, a man yelling "CRAWL BABY CRAWL!", so they pretty much screamed that for 20 minutes at everyone coming through. Note: You might be asking yourself why Micah is covered from head to toe in mud, while the other two guys in the picture are only muddy on their front half. Well, it's because he literally dives in while the others just start crawling. Usually the dive has some trick attached like a jump spin. His philosophy is that if you're going to sign up for this, you might as well go all out.

This coming weekend is the Dirty 6 - 6 miles of fun this time.