It is Finished!

I am happy to report that as of Saturday at 5 pm, five months and three days after we moved in, our new house is officially "finished!" Everything on our never ending list of projects is finally complete, and after much anticipation, we've finally moved on to the "enjoyment" phase of the new house. It's been a long road, with much sweat, many tears and plenty of long days along the way, but now that it's all over, I can say that it was worth it. Jason and I love our new house! It turned out to be everything we wanted it to be, and much more, and at last it feels like home, not like a project. (And as soon as I get the studio cleaned up from the current scrapbooking project, the house will be ready for its photoshoot, and pictures will come then.)

In Gideon news, I've already gotten teary eyed a couple of times already in anticipation of his first birthday coming up. Most nights I put him in his crib after books and prayers and he goes to sleep from there. But last night, for some reason he was extra cuddly, so we just sat in his rocker and rocked and rocked for twenty minutes or so. He didn't fall asleep. He didn't squirm away. He didn't even need me to nurse him or read to him. He just laid his head on my chest and was content to let me hold him. Every now and then, he would turn to me and smile, and then just lay his head back down again. I must say that those are the absolute best moments in the entire world! And when I start realizing how quickly his first year has flown by, I am even more thankful for those precious few times when he still curls up in my lap and is more my baby than my little boy.

I wonder how many times God feels like that with us? He's probably itching for the chance just to hold us and comfort us and just be with us, but we seldom let that happen, do we? If God had a big rocking chair, how often would you crawl up on it and sit in His lap and let Him rock you? Being a parent makes you think of God in a whole new way, I think. When I had Gideon, my editors at Discovery House sent me a little CD that I absolutely love. The first song on it is a song called "Rock Awhile" and every time I listen to it, I think back to when Gideon was a newborn and we would spend hours and hours each day (and night) just rocking in the chair, listening to that CD. I think that's what I need to focus on more these days. Not projects. Not work. Not relationships. Just rocking awhile with God at the end of every day. What about you?