When I think back to the ideas Drew and I had when pregnant with our first child, I laugh. We were never going to raise our voices, now we shut the windows before we raise that same voice. Our children were going to sit perfectly still in church, the first time. Now we're going on week 8...and she still has a wiggle bum (Kaylin's words). In public we were going to pull them aside when they needed punishment. We've both gotten good at slapping a little hand away from tables while drinking our coffees and holding a conversation. Tempers in stores? not even thinkable. Now sometimes when Jacob throws one I just want to laugh at how ridiculous he looks. All these ideas, and yet some of parenting I could never have imagined. I think you need to come up with ideas and when you become a parent you need to have room for change. And acceptance. Acceptance that you will make mistakes, but that in those mistakes your children need to see your love for them. To be able to sit back and say, "I was wrong". Its okay to change your mind about things while you grow. Its apart of it.
Then there's moments when you realize all the imagining in the world can't prepare you for some moments. Saturday was one. I was looking for Kaylin and Drew, found them sitting in the work van, Drew drinking a beer while Kaylin "drove" him to the dentist, then to zoo and I believe Fortinos. It was a moment when I realized how blessed I was. And I love how both Drew and I are getting better at just stopping for a little while and just being with the kids. Now Kaylin tells everyone she meets she drove Daddy to the dentist :)
Yup- parenting keeps us humble and it's God's way of reminding us that we don't have all the answers to the problems we could never have imagined in the first place:) I think parenting is like free-falling: you're not quite sure how life took those turns, and you don't feel like you're in control of the situation, and your only hope is to pray all the way through the journey!
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