Dedicated

Sunday was a special day at the Francl household.  Not only was it the middle day of a 3 day weekend (which is definitely worth noting), but it was also Dedication Day for our Liliana.  We don't believe in baptizing babies, because we believe that baptism is something that a person does after making a conscious decision to make Christ the Lord of his/her life.  

So, instead of baptism, what we do to show our desire for Lily to follow the Lord is to dedicate her to His will for her life.  In front of our church, we stood with Lily and our Pastor and committed to raise her, to the best of our ability, to know the love of Christ and the truth of the Bible.  Maybe to you that's not a big deal, but to us, it's huge.  

The responsibility of raising Lily in a safe, loving home where she's nourished and nurtured is awesome.  The responsibility of raising her in such a way that she sees God's work in our lives and experiences His love through us... that's almost overwhelming.  It's a comfort to know that when we are weakest, that's when God is strongest in us.  

I feel weak.  I'm tired.  I'm not able.  I can't do it.

"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power will rest on me."  2 Cor. 12: 19

So I'm basking in His grace.  I'm reveling in His grace.  I'm swimming, diving, drowning in His grace.  It's a relief that I can't do it all.  That I get to dedicate my baby to a God who I sometimes don't understand, but who I can trust implicitly.  He loves her more than I do - I can't understand how that's possible, but He does.  And His plan for her life is perfect, exactly perfect for her.  I can't control it, but I can do my part.  That's what I'll do, by His grace and for His glory.  

Here are Chase and Lily at the lake (thanks for having us Greg and Karen!) after the dedication.  It was Lily's first time in her swimming suit, which she liked.  It was also her first time putting her feet on the sand, in the lake.  She wasn't much of a fan of the cold water... a daughter after my own heart!  :)  

This next set of pictures is from a photo shoot that one of our dear friends did with Lily for her 8 month pictures (Thanks Kathy!!!!).  What a blessing to have these!

My mom watches Lily one day a week for me, and my mom has 2 cats.  When they come into the room where Lily is, she gets super excited... the cats not so much.  Below is one of the cats, Princess Persia Puff Tail (don't ask...) who is clearly not as excited to see Lily as Lily is to see her.  :)

A month gone by

Have you ever had days, weeks or even months that just seemed to pass without you realizing how quickly they've gone?  That's how I feel.  It's been more than a month (a month and 3 days to be precise) since my last blog post, and I can't believe it!  What have I been doing?  How has my baby grown?  What has kept me from blogging the progression of our lives over the last month?  I know I had at least 100 ideas for blog topics...  

I just downloaded these pictures from my camera, and they shed at least some light on what we've been up to.  So I'll just dive in.  This is my Grandma Jewel with Lily at a baby shower for one of the new babies in our church.  In the last month, Grandma and Lily started spending one morning a week together so that I can work at the school.  More about that on a later blog post. 

Lily and I enjoy getting together with other mommies and kids for "play dates" which I know must seem nuts to do for a baby - babies don't really play do they? - but it's SO valuable!  I can't tell you how many mommy tips and tricks I learn from the other savvy ladies that come.  And it's so much fun to watch other kids develop and grow right along with Lily.  Below is Lily next to one of her best friends, Lucy.  (Play dates are also a great time to teach lifelong skills like sharing - Lucy is sucking on Lily's toy.  As soon as the picture was taken, Lily tried to pull it away from her... going to have to work on that "share" thing...)

There are a shocking number of babies all at about the same age in our Play Date group.  Below are Lucy, Lily (in the orange) and Roman (Lily's boyfriend - hands off, girls!), all born within 4 weeks of each other.  Roman rolled over first, Lucy crawled first, and Lily sat up first - they all just develop so differently!

Lily and I spent a couple of days hanging out with her cousins, Ella and Tyus.  We were lucky that their regular babysitter needed some time off, and we got to hang out at their place with them while my sister-in-law finished up teaching for the year.  Their neighbor's cat had kittens in their shed, so we got to peek in on the little family.  I had a moment with the mama cat - me being a recently new mama and all - her kittens were climbing all over her, pawing at her face, eating and eating and eating.  And I looked at her and thought, Isn't being a mom wonderful?  And she looked back at me and her eyes said, Yes. There's no greater privilege in life!

We've had lots of nice warm weather lately, and our little house has copious amounts of small patios (3 to be precise).  One of the small patios is dedicated to grilling, and that's what we were doing when I snapped this picture.  :)  What better sight could a girl see?  Her knight in shining armor (or an old t-shirt) holding her precious baby.  *Sigh*  I love grilling.

Sometimes evenings around our house can be a little rough.  I like to keep Lily up until as close to 9 as possible (and sometimes later), but sometimes she thinks 8 would be a good time to go to bed.  The problem with her going to bed at 8 is that then she likes to get up at 6 or 7.  If she goes to bed at 9 then she gets up at the much more reasonable hours of 7 or 8 (at least her mommy can function then).  So in order to keep her up, and because she's a baby and needs to be kept clean, we often bathe in the late evening.  Below is a shot of just such a night - I believe it was 3 nights ago.

Also included in the month and 3 days I haven't been blogging were a wedding, some graduations, a bridal shower, a baby shower... you know, the usual "April showers/May flowers" stuff.  There was also my first Mother's Day as a mother (at least with a child out of the womb).  It was pretty low-key.  We spent time with my mom and with Chase's mom, and Lily let me nap in the afternoon as her present to me (she SO gets me already!  It was JUST what I needed!).

I'm a little disappointed with myself that I didn't keep the blog up this past month.  The urgent got in the way of the important, and some important got in the way of the less important.  But there's one thing in my life that hasn't changed:  this little face is the most important and wonderful thing.  (See her little teeth!?!  What could be better???)