sibling love

Tonight as we were wishing each other goodnight, I told Calli that John David loves her so much. She added that he was going to love only her forever and ever.

As I walked away to rock him to sleep, I wondered to myself about their future together as siblings. I wonder if they will be friends always. I know they will love each other. I have prayed that they will always be close and kind to one another. I want them to take up for the other and to protect the other from harm. Then, when they become teenagers and begin taking an interest in the opposite sex, I wonder how they will deal with the each other? Will they be heartbroken because this means that they no longer hold the position in each other’s hearts as most loved? For now, she loves him immensely and, though he is young, he already admires her.

Lord, may it always be so. Help them to protect one another and genuinely love each other always.

In the morning when I rise give me Jesus

Recently I have really felt impressed to become a more godly woman. I have Proverbs 31 from The Message posted on my refrigerator, and, as is always the case when the Lord is trying to tell me something, I have been hearing a common theme in messages on the radio or television or when I am talking to one of my friends on the phone. I have been feeling like God is calling me to get up a little earlier and spend time with Michael before he goes to work and to have my quiet time then. I have had a dozen reason why this is not feasible:  I’m up late doing schoolwork, I’m up all night with one child or the other, I need my rest to be a good mother…the list goes on and on. And they all sounded like good arguments until this morning. This morning something happened to me that I can’t say has ever happened quite like this. When Michael left for work this morning I was awake (for the fourth morning in a row…should’ve known something was coming), John David was in the bed with me due to my unwillingness to lay him back down after his 5:30 feeding, and I was lying there trying to go back to sleep when I heard the Lord distinctly say, “Spend time with Me.” I’m embarrassed to say that I tried, at first, to shake off this feeling as I started rehearsing all of my excuses for sleeping-in a few more minutes. I dozed and woke up again to the same words, “Spend time with Me.” This time I had a conversation with God in which I asked Him if He would give me supernatural rest, help me to be a good mother today even with my lack of sleep. He, just kept saying, “Come, spend time with Me.”

Now I know that a pastor’s wife is supposed to have jumped right up the first time, even without being beckoned, but I’m not a picture of perfection…yet. I did get up and read my Bible. I asked Him to show me what He had for me today, and here are the highlights from my reading in John 2-3:

Believe God’s Word or trust in what the Lord has said even without a sign or a miracle. People came to Jesus asking Him what kind of sign He could give them or what kind of miracle He could perform to prove who He was. The Bible tells us that we are blessed when we believe without seeing. I need to take God at His word.

Lift up Jesus in all that I do and say. John the Baptist, when he was repeatedly questioned by people, always responded by telling them that he was only the forerunner of the Son of God, sent to point others toward Him. Jesus said that He must be lifted up so that people can see Him and come to know him. John the Baptist also said that we must become less so that He becomes greater still.

Think heavenly-minded, not earthly-minded. The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus meant when he told them to tear down the temple and that he would rebuild it in three days until after he rose from the grave. They were thinking in earthly terms. Also, when Nicodemus (a highly educated man–educated in the Scriptures) came to Jesus, and He told him that he must be born again, Nicodemus took him literally, asking how that was possible to be born a second time from his mother’s womb. He was thinking in earthly terms.

And then I read a Proverb for the day. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, so I try to read one-a-day. It’s funny how you can read the same thing more than once and get a totally different emphasis out of what you read. This is what stood out to me today:

Be a wise person—a person who fears the Lord. Proverbs 23 says that we as parents can delight in a wise child. The whole book of Proverbs talks about people in categories (wise, foolish, mocking, and simple), and a wise person is one who fears the Lord. So, I need to pray for my children to be wise children as I, with God’s strength, am an example of fearing the Lord. [Sidebar:  All my life I have wanted to be wise, even when I was a very young child, so when I first read that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10), I had to find out what that meant. I have found (especially in Proverbs) that it means to hate evil, to shun evil, to resist evil, and to do good, to be drawn to godly things rather than things of this world or the devil, to pursue peace (Psalm34:14; Proverbs 8:13). So, in my mind when I hear the words, "fear the Lord," I picture myself running away from evilness and toward peacefulness.]

Do not be allured by extravagance and by those who are materialistic. Need I say more? I think that it is always a struggle for me not to compare myself and the things I have to others’. I just need to be content with what I have and with who I am in Christ.

I don’t write these things as if I am an expert on the Bible, but I thought that maybe I’m not the only one who God wanted to share this with today. He is precious, and His ways are not our ways, so if this helps one person today, then all the praise goes back to Him. Thank you Lord for loving me enough to spend time with me today and to reveal a little more of Yourself! You are an awesome, loving Father!

Our Baby Boy!

Wowza! I’m a little late posting our wonderful news! John David Stuart Keel came to be with us on November 19th, 2009. He weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was 19 3/4 in. He is just the sweetest baby and the best little sleeper. Calli is absolutely in love with him, and he adores her. I cannot imagine what they will be like in years to come, but my prayer is that they always remain close to one another and love each other even more than they do now. What a joy it is for a mother to know that her children are friends. We thank the Lord for giving us such a lovely Thanksgiving gift!

Calli These Days

I haven’t journaled about Calli in a while, and she has been doing and saying some of the funniest things lately!

A couple of weeks ago, we realized that she has some imaginary friends. She has two boys and two girls that are her “children.” According to her they are very good listeners and they are sweet. She says there are five of them, but she says there are two Brockmans and two Isabellas (named for two of her friends from church)…so we only count four. Many times she says that a group of things or people is five when it’s just a small group, so that may be what’s going on with her friends. She takes them places with her, and they eat with us some nights at the table.

This week Calli said some very cute things that are noteworthy. One is this: “I love the breeze in my hair…and in my mouth.” We felt the first signs of fall this week, and as we were walking to the car one day, she shook out her hair as she made this statement…then she licked the air.

A few nights ago she was sitting in my lap talking (stalling before she reluctantly went off to bed). She said, “One day when I get a little bit bigger, I maybe can marry you…or maybe my Dad.” I asked her what she thought her Dad would say about that, and she said that he would smile. “He would think that is pretty funny.”

I don’t know if it’s because of the soon-to-be new baby or what, but she has been extra clingy. I haven’t pushed her to do anything that she doesn’t want to do, mainly because I am realizing that I only have a few days with her alone. From November on it’ll be the two of us plus a baby boy. I’m excited about John David, and I know he’ll add so much to our family, but I am going to miss having my one-on-one time with my Calli girl.

IT’S A BOY!

From the first day that I had a positive pregnancy test, Calli was sure that our next baby was going to be a boy. We had been calling this baby “he” and “him” for months, but we went for our ultrasound last week, and Calli was right! We have a boy, who will be called John David Stuart, due on Thanksgiving Day. So far, everything seems very normal and we both seem healthy. Please keep praying with us about this. I don’t know why I worry about anything at all…never helps, but I do think a lot about his health and the delivery. I will have a scheduled c-section about a week before my due date. This is good for me because I will get to eat my turkey and dressing at home with our new addition!

I had everything lined up when we were expecting Calli, but with this pregnancy, I’ve been so different. I am changing my craft room into John David’s nursery, and I am going about it so slowly. Michael has a week off in a couple of weeks, and I think he’s going to do all of the heavy lifting then. I would LOVE to have the bedding picked out and the paint purchased by then, but I’m having a hard time deciding on his bedding. It’s so much fun to have these decisions, but I’m hesitant about this…I know nothing about boys!! Plus, I want to pick out something that I’m not going to be tired of when he’s 18 months old.

Calli is looking forward to having a new baby so much! We are putting a positive spin on everything that happens and trying to involve her in the decisions we make. Lots of people have told us that she’ll be jealous, and she has been a little more clingy (wants her pacifiers, wants to be rocked, etc.) lately, but I don’t ever remember being jealous of any of my four siblings when they were born…I was just happy to have a baby in the house. That’s how I intend to approach things with Calli. We’ll have our special time together, and Michael will be home from school a lot during the holidays, so it should be a fun transition with her. I’m praying that God will form a strong bond between the two of them, and that He will give her a supernatural love for her brother. I’m looking forward to seeing Him answer this prayer.

Anyway, I hope to add updates on our room changes. Calli’s gonna get a new bed–a real big girl bed–and our office is changing. All-in-all we’re converting three rooms! It should be tons of work and lots of fun!! HAHA! So glad we have room for our growing family. God is good!

Calli-isms

Calli has done and said so many sweet, funny things lately that it’s hard for me to try and remember them, but I know that I may forget them if I don’t publish them somehow.

Two weeks ago we were walking through the outlets in Gaffney, and Calli saw a Clemson Tiger paw and said, “Look! A ‘coo’!” Michael and I looked at each other for a second, and then I realized what she was saying. We had been watching Blue’s Clues at bedtime for a few nights before. She was saying that she had seen a clue! So, we all had to take out our “handy-dandy” notebooks and draw the different things we saw. Since then, she has seen “coos” all over the place. Michael was watching the Clemson game last Saturday, and she ran up to the TV pointing to all of the paws on the players’ helmets! Hillarious!

Last night I was loading the dishwasher, and Michael was getting Calli some milk, so he sat her on the counter with her pink and purple pony. We heard her talking to it, and she said, “Hey pony! I love you with all my hott, fo’ eva’ and eva’.” We looked at each other, me almost in tears, and then we looked at her. She had gotten our spoon rest, which does look somewhat like a heart, and she was holding it up and showing pony. When she caught us looking, she said, “Here, Daddy, here’s my ‘hott’.”

Her heart truly does belong to her daddy. When she is told to do something during the daytime while Michael’s working, sometimes she will refuse by saying, “No!”, which is instantly followed by, “I want my Daddy.” She knows that she would rather not be on her way to her room for a “word of prayer” with me. She always refers to Michael as “my Daddy,” even when she addresses him. She’ll say, “My Daddy, let’s go play <pay> in my room <oom>.” She’s got him wrapped around her finger. I guess that’s the way it’ll always be.

We bought a put-together bookcase for our living room, and it came wrapped in bubblewrap. This has proven to be Calli’s favorite toy so far. Last Friday night she fell asleep popping the bubbles. After a few hours she, like many nights lately, ended up back in the bed with us at about 5 a.m. I got up before she and Michael the next morning and began making myself some hot tea. While I was in the kitchen I kept hearing a snapping sound. I just thought it was the house because the heat was on, but a while later, I checked on the two of them, and Calli was sitting in the bed playing with the bubblewrap! She calls them “snaps”, by the way. I decided to fill her stocking with them this year.

Snaps reminds me of when she first saw fireworks this past May. We were on the beach for her first time, and it was nighttime. I started to take Calli back in when I heard the fireworks because I thought that it may frighten her. I was wrong! She saw and heard them and wanted to go closer. She said, “Look, Mommy! Pops!” We still call them that.

“Pinsass”

I think Calli turned into a little girl this past week. When we got to church Sunday, one of my good friends, Stacey, said that Calli looked like a different person this week. It’s true.

We took her to Chick-fil-a tonight, and it was, coincidentally, princess night. There were some teenage girls dressed in prom-type dresses with tiaras and one girl’s dress had a very full skirt. She was Princess Amanda, and all of the little girls were having their picture made with her and with a teenage boy who was dressed in a tuxedo posing as Prince Charming. Calli didn’t eat because she was way too interested in all of the little girls around her. They all were wearing their dress-up princess dresses and tiaras as well.

I thought that maybe we would see if Calli would sit for a picture with Princess Amanda, but I really didn’t think that she would; she’s usually wary of unfamiliar people and places. Of course, she did! She sat right down and looked right into the camera. She even smiled when they gave her her very own pink boa-wrapped, silver toned, sparkly tiara! As we were leaving, we saw the other girls running in from outdoors (where the tiny princesses were making beaded necklaces and bracelets) because it had started raining. I pulled her hood up onto her head, which she usually likes because she likes wearing a hat, but she it pulled off as soon as we got to the car. She wanted me to put her other hat (tiara) back on. As I buckled her in to her car seat, I told her that she was a real princess now that she had a crown. She pointed to it and very matter-of-factly said to Michael and me, “I pinSASS, I pinSASS.” To which, we looked at each other and replied, “Yes, you certainly are.”

As I walked around to get into the car, I felt a little lump in my throat. She is a little girl now. Where did my baby go?