We're officially having a December baby, and this greatly pleases Hawk. None of our family members have December birthdays, and unless something very strange happens, the baby won't really have a holiday birthday. We both cannot wait for Ace to "arrive" so we can all hang out by our new Christmas tree together, watch the snow fall, drink even more hot cocoa than our nightly dose, and do all those sappy things together.
Speaking of sappy, today's a bit more of a devote day. Move along to the giveaway if this sort of thing annoys you. I won't be offended. Heck, I won't even know.
I began writing small devote sections as a way of highlighting recent ah-ha! moments we discovered about the details of marriage while working through a new old-house (they're only three-months apart in age). And really, the devotes are the reason for this blog. I debate about how personal to get here, so we don't do them regularly, but they certainly form the foundation of thishawksnest.
Back in October, Mom Hawk's lovely bosom buddies threw me a baby shower (I totally had to just google how to spell "bosom.") They made me cry, which I'll explain in a moment. These are the same women who threw me a wedding shower and made me cry there, too. They're very good at decorating, preparing delectibles and sparkling refreshments, and setting the mood for relaxed happiness. And pulling out the ole, "let's say something sweet that makes Jen cry" thing.
This last time, Elizabeth (she made our wedding-favor cookies), who is also a professional speaker, brought two of her four sons' baby blankets. She found them under their beds even though the youngest is almost out of middle school. They looked wretched. Completely tattered, worn, stringy, full of holes,* they no longer resembled blankets. She explained that for her boys, these blankets represented comfort, and no matter how old they were, they would always need to be comforted. (Damn hormones, I'm tearing up even now.) And so would I. She continued to mention reasons for comfort, the source of comfort, and closed by asking me to consider what comfort will be mine in the coming years.
And this made me do one of those "tear up and choke a little" movements where your hand flies to your collarbone as if that's going to help....I already knew the answer.
Hawk is my comfort. (I know, gagging sound from Seattle). He teases me endlessly, rolls his eyes at my feminine ways, can't stand half of my decorating ideas, but loves me to his death. Our wedding program began with the following Alice von Hildebrand quote:
Marriage calls each spouse
to fight against himself
for the sake of his beloved.
And I have found this to be entirely true in our 18 months of marriage. Our greatest hope for our children is that whatever love we offer them flows from what we offer each other first, and this drives us to constantly fight against our own selfishness for the sake of the other. I would be a wreck through this pregnancy were Hawk not by my side, reading babycenter.com, nursing books, helping fold laundry, talking every morning and evening, tooting, and making me laugh so hard the baby kicks. At the end of every day, he is my home.
My good friend Colleen said, "The greatest thing you can do for your children is to help them live their own life." I've been thinking about this more and more as we enter this very unique phase in life. Our kids will move away just as we left our parents; their homes are not truly with us. I want them to have what we have, even though it won't be with us.
Now, enough with the gagging-relflexes. On to a better question: What activity / food / drink / person makes you comfortable in December?
Hope this finds you well, friends.
icj,
~j
*I couldn't help asking, can something really be full of holes when a hole is nothing? Why don't we say, "full of nothing"?
spiked hot cocoa and good music!
ReplyDeleteGetting to be with my family during college break.
ReplyDeleteLove the giveaway!
~leslie