Can We Market Our Kids as Stress Relievers?

Well, Gabe is officially everywhere on his feet, and it's awesome! He helped with the laundry for the first time today. I was unloading the dryer, and he came over and started pulling clothing items out for me one by one. Of course, he threw some of them on the floor, but others he handed up to me. It was a blast!

Just within the last week or so, Gabe has also gotten tons better at communicating certain things. For example, today I asked him if he'd like a piece of cheese, and he shook his head "no". Well, that was certainly much easier than breaking up a piece of cheese only to see it thrown to the ground and wasted. He's babbling a ton and still loves singing. Finally, he's getting lots better at responding when we give him verbal direction--we don't always have to actually show him what we want him to do.

I keep forgetting to write about Ladan's favorite Charlotte's Web characters: Fussy Henry, Burn, and Honkle Homer. (Just in case you're not up on Charlotte's Web, these are his substitutes for Henry Fussy, Fern, and Uncle Homer.)

For Christmas two years ago, Chet and I made Ladan a giraffe at Build-A-Bear. Sometime during the last few months, he decided it would be fun to ride the giraffe. So he jumps on to the giraffe's back, holds on to its ears and gallops through the house making very loud horse noises. At these moments, he calls his giraffe his "crazy horse". Well, tonight, Ladan was riding said crazy horse at the time his bed time snack was ready for consumption. I called him over, and he came... with a look of great concern. He tried to arrange things so the giraffe could share his booster seat. However, there's just not enough room for that. I suggested that he just let the giraffe sit on the floor next to him until he was finished eating. He replied, "Well, I think he needs his own chair." So we sat the giraffe in the chair across the table from Ladan and propped his head on the table. Then we moved the candle out of the center of the table so Ladan and the giraffe could maintain eye contact during their snack time. It's the little things that make all the difference, I guess!

It appears as though Chet is totally exhausted. It has gotten to the point where he almost always forgets at least one very important thing every time he leaves the house. Normally, Chet so rarely forgets things that, unless you were married to him, you might be able to say with a bit of confidence that he NEVER forgets things. So the fact that this is happening almost every time he leaves the house is actually pretty big. No person's body was meant to operate on 4-5 hours of sleep per night (or morning in his case) for such lengthy periods of time. I would suggest that this is one of the pretty major negative effects of the invention of electricity and the light bulb. For example, it's nearly 2am, and I'm sitting here writing this while Chet's at work. Insane!

Anyway, my assessment is that overall, he's handling his stress and lack of sleep exceedingly well. It just comes out in little ways like forgetting stuff. Needless to say, he's being tested. The really great thing is that, despite the fact that this is his hardest semester ever, he's busier than ever, and has less sleep than ever, he's handling things BETTER than ever! I am seeing the Lord's hand at work in my husband helping him through and giving him grace to handle REALLY WELL what could push any person over the edge. Now, I'm just praying that the Lord will have mercy on him for the remaining four weeks and either provide some sleep... or an extra punch of energy along with a renewal of his mental sharpness. Please pray that he will finish well and that I will know how to be a helper to him.

Praise God for cheesy grins, singing babies, hysterical laughter, and crazy horses sitting at our table! Praise Him for testing us and allowing us to see how we've grown individually and in our marriage! And praise him for showing us ways we need to continue to grow... this in itself is a mercy. What if we skated through seminary with no difficult scheduling issues or exhaustion issues and were completely shocked when we moved into the "real world" of ministry? The Lord has been merciful to us to allow us to work through how to handle all these things while we're still in the company of such great mentors and while we have some of the best resources in the world right at our fingertips! What a great time in our lives!