Did He Come? Did He Come?

Every Christmas of my unmarried life started with those three words.  "Did he come? Did he come?"  My mother would ask my sister and I as we waited for Dad to give the OK for us to enter the den.  My mother was referring to Santa Clause.  However, now that I am older and closer to the Lord those words have a totally different meaning for me.

By the time Ivan came home J and I were much more mature in our spiritual lives than when we got married nine years before.  As people who felt closer to the Lord we wanted to share that relationship with our new son.  Our first Christmas with Ivan we wanted to start off right and make sure that it wasn't all about Santa.  We wanted to find a way to balance Santa and Jesus.  We planned a Birthday Party for Jesus with my sister and her children.  We read stories about Jesus' birth.  Finally, we decided to take the baby Jesus out of the manger scenes that we have around the house.  Ivan was so little at that time that he never noticed the abrupt change.  On Christmas morning Jesus "arrives" in the manger scenes and stays with us until Epiphany.  Now that Ivan is older he notices right away that the babe is not in the manger.  He asks when he will arrive and J and I tell him "When he is born on Christmas day!"  This is the first year that he seems to know that it is not a mystical force that brings the babies to their appropriate scenes on Christmas morning, but in fact Mom and Dad.  That's OK with me though.  By leaving the baby out Ivan stays tuned in to the manger scene beyond the first day that it is set out.  The first several days that they were out he would look periodically to see if perhaps something may have changed.  He's since stopped checking, but he has told several people that he is looking forward to the arrival of the baby Jesus' at our house Christmas morning. 

So now when I ask Ivan on Christmas morning "Did He Come?  Did He Come?"  I am not talking about Santa but the true reason for this wonderful season, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  Blessedly I can answer that with a resounding "YES! And He will come again someday!!"

Setting the Record Straight...

We were driving home from school this afternoon when God blessed me with a wonderful moment of ...validation, maybe?  I don't know the right word at the moment so that will have to do.  Anyway, Ivan, cousin C and I are slipping down the road towards home.  The two of them are always very chatty after carpool and usually it is nothing worth hearing, so I tune them out.  Today however, was different.

C says "W was the first child out of mommy's tummy and then you came out of your mommy's tummy..."  Ivan immediately interrupts her with "No.  That is not right. "  C says "Yes, it is.  W, then you and then me."  Ivan says again "No.  I did not come out of my mommy's tummy.  I came from another ladies tummy and then my mom and dad came and adopted me.  The other lady is still in Kazakhstan.  Punch buggy green!  No punch backs!!"

I don't know why this touched me so much, but it did.  J and I refer to her as his birth-mother not "the other lady".  He is 6 though and was trying to get his point across before he was interrupted, so I let it go.  It was validating perhaps because it shows me that he sees us as mom and dad not his "adopted mom and dad" and that he has absorbed at least some of what we have tried to share with him over the years about his "history".  I wanted to record this so that  when he is a nasty teenager and possibly throws that one out I can be reminded that at his core and in his heart we are just mommy and daddy.

 

Puppy Blues...

Poor Ivan. He is just devastated at the news we received last night. The puppy that we thought was going to be the new member of our family is not doing well. Our breeder called and said that she is not comfortable allowing him to come home with us since his health appears questionable.

We are trying to remind Ivan that things happen in God's time and not ours, but it is a hard lesson, no matter how old you are. I'm just praying for Ivan to continue to be patient. We are the first in line for the next litter that will be ready to come home in about a month.

Poor kid.

Moms and Muffins...

This morning Ivan and his class hosted Moms and Muffins. I totally forgot about it since we were at Disney last week. However, God did not forget. He placed it in my mind as I was in the line at the bank. I raced over to school and was 15 minutes late, but I got there and this wonderful little gem was waiting for me when I arrived.

Mothers are special...

This is how my mother looks...her is really tall. Her has brown eyes, like me.

Her age is...37.

She really likes to...read with me and play games.

She likes to cook...pizza...but she buys it! She cooks french fries.

My mother does not like it when I...draw on something I'm not to.

I make my mother happy when I...clean up my room and do my chores in one day!

My mother is special because...her is my mother!

Ivan's teacher read all of these out loud (the part I missed) then the children served us a muffin, some wonderful strawberries and a drink. Then they cleared our plates and we were able to visit and enjoy the rest of the day together. What a blessing and to think that I almost missed it! Praise the Lord that I did not!!

The Faith of a Child...

Tonight Ivan has blessed our family in two most unexpected ways...

1) He twisted his gum wrapper into a little silver challis (like Nana taught him some time ago). Then he came and found me while I was drying my hair and told me that he would put it on the dinning room table (my parents were coming to dinner and then Mom and I were going to sing at church) and that it was like Jesus' cup from the Last Supper.

2) Then at dinner we asked Ivan to say "his" blessing first. He started off as usual "God is great, God is good..." then, however, he went on to say something that must have been in his heart from the Holy Spirit: "Thank you Jesus for dieing on the cross today for our sins and rescuing us so that we will no longer listen to him." Wow, I was stunned at how much he has been taking in our talk about Jesus dieing for us and about how we are not to listen to Satan, but to God alone.

Thank you Lord for showing me, first hand, the love and faith of a child. Ivan is the greatest blessing I have ever received...thank you, thank you, thank you, a thousand times, thank you.

I SO excited about the beach!

This has been Ivan's refrain for the past 5 days and tomorrow we finally leave for the beach. Ivan is looking forward to spending time with two of his favorite cousins, his favorite aunt and uncle, and of course with Nana and Papa Wayne. He is also thrilled about the beach house that my parents have rented for all of us for the week. Of course he is looking forward to playing in the sand and surf and everything else that accompanies a family vacation at the beach.

For me however, there is all of that and so much more this year. My Dad will be with us. There was a time, not too many months ago, when I was not sure that would be possible ever again. In fact, when my Dad was unconscious my sister and I would sit with him and hold his hands. We would tell him to "keep fighting Daddy" and to think about the beach this summer and to think about the kids piling sand on his feet and calling them frog houses or crab condos. It was one of the things that we would remind him of almost every day. I know that Daddy survived his pancreatitis because of God's grace and his strong will to live, but I also know that part of that will to live comes from the desire to see his grand kid's grow-up. He doesn't remember anything about his time while he was unconscious or much from when he first regained consciousness. However, I do believe that this week will be very rewarding for my sister and me as we watch our children do exactly what we told Papa Wayne they would do with the sand and his feet. I know that I will be emotional this week at the beach just thinking about how we almost lost Dad this year - and never saw it coming. I don't mind though, because I So excited about the beach too.

Out of the mouth of (my) babe...

Ivan's speech has improved a hundred fold over the past year. This mostly has to do with the wonderful speech therapists that he has worked with during that time as well as the fact that I talk his ear off.

I wanted to compile an ongoing list of some of his cute little sayings before they change or are lost to my memory. I know that I have already lost a great deal of them but here is a start in no particular order:

Da!
Who dat?
What doin'?
mater woop
pizza pie (pizza pie dip)
ketchup dip
Why?
Me like that.
Ha Ha (Ivan's name for Sherman)
Werman
Wermy
Caroline's Mom (this is what Ivan calls his aunt C)
The Best of Diesel (Mavis, Diesiel 10, Duck etc.)
Where puppy? (referring to his luvy blanket that looks like a little dog - he loves that blanket)
Tall poopy hurt my bottom (J's all time favorite)
Me have hard time (falling asleep)
That one of me favorites
I do it!
Where is?
Quiet, please.
I need privacy!
I have playdate with all those guys (meaning all of his cousins)
Let's go wooper fast!
Danul (refering to the neighbors cat - Daniel)
Praise God for what we need to...make people, our welcome food, our backyard, to love our neighbors as ourselves

Lessons with PB&J

Last Thursday Ivan and I went shopping at our local warehouse club. As we cruised up and down the isles we talked about the different items that we were buying that day. I picked-up a large package of peanut butter and jelly to donate to our local food pantry. Ivan immediately said, Ivan? I told him no that we were buying this pb&j for those who could not afford their own. He looked at me and again said Ivan? So I told him that we were buying it to share with others and he seemed satisfied.

When we got home and I put the pb&j in the dinning room, a place that guaranteed that I would not forget it on Sunday morning, Ivan again asked if it was for him. I explained again that we had bought this for others. He started to cry and say that he wanted it. I took him into our pantry and showed him our identical jars of pb&j and said that these were for Ivan anytime he wanted them. That made everything better and off we went.

Sunday morning we walked into the Narthex at church and J took the pb&j over to the baskets were we put our donations to the food pantry. Ivan runs after him and says "Mommy!" and begins to sign the share sign.

How cool is that? He remembered from Thursday morning that we were going to "share" the pb&j with others. It reminded me that he is always listening and learning.