Celebrating God-Glimmers

Two years ago my arms and my heart became very full of good things.

The moment this picture was taken, I had no idea how much these two little ones would s t r e t c h me outside of my belly. How often I would be brought to the end of myself. Weaknesses I didn't even know I had, exposed. My desperate need for sleep bringing me overwhelmed and weeping to my knees, which, thanfully, stopped me from running into walls for a moment.

All of that struggle, though? It's brought me to a place where I celebrate. I celebrate gifts, small graces--even when it seems impossible. I find the gift: the breath of a whining toddler, the snuggles of a feverish girl with an ear infection at 2AM. I fight to see that minscule speck of grace.

Don't get me wrong. I don't love every moment of parenting. Sometimes it just sucks. But I've found that peering through the reeds of the suckiness, there is a glimmer of something good--always. Because God is always, and he is good always. I've learned that parenting is far less sucky when you can cling to those God-glimmers, raise them up and say, Yes! Thank you! This is just slightly less sucky, because ___________.

One year ago today, we celebrated making it through a really brutiful (beautiful and brutal) year.

It's never a party till a sock monkey shows up!

Today--two years since Hadley and Brynne entered our lives. My cup overflows. My heart swells with joy. Glimmers everywhere! We get to celebrate that brutiful day those two girls wriggled into the world again!