Working Out Our Theory

This is a post from 2010, I re-read it and thought I would re-publish it... My feelings on the subject have definetly not changed! :) the kids are just a couple years older now!

Matt and I have three kids. We have been married for 5 years in July. Thats 3 kids in 5 years. I have been pregnant or breast-feeding since around April 2006. We were on the "two-year" plan, which was... to wait 'til we had been married for two years before we got pregnant or tried to get pregnant, but if we got pregnant before that, we would be happy no matter what! We didn't quite make it to two years, considering we we spent our first anniversary about three-months pregnant!

So, 10 months into our marriage, I get the "+" sign on the pregnancy test after a couple days lapse in picking up my new set of birth-control. We were ECSTATIC! It was a great and educational experience. Matt and I decided that we wanted our kids to be close in age, and since we both wanted 5 kids, we came up with the theory that the next several years would be concentrated chaos of babies, diapers, toddlers, fun and just plain insanity. At the end of those early baby years, we would come into a new age of no babies, no diapers, no toddlers, and just different family fun insanity.

We haven't quite gotten past those early baby years yet. We haven't even finished having all our kids yet, but we were right about the babies, diapers, toddlers, fun and plain insanity. Everyday is like a sitcom comedy at our house. Its usually organized chaos, sometimes there is no organization, but I love it and I love my kids!

I think about what a huge task it was to try and change a wiggly babies' diaper when I just had one, and now, today I was literally changing a wiggly babies' diaper, with a naked two-year old hanging on my neck, yelling in my ear, and a three-year old crawling down the hallway pretending she is the baby.

They say funny stuff all day, they astound me with their ever growing vocabularies and understanding of life. They learn fast in stuff you may not necessarily want (like saying "oh crap") and slower at things you wish happened over night (like potty training).

I think about how it is my responsibility to train my children up in the Lord and in life. Its an amazing privilege to be responsible for their lives and their souls at this point. I have to think about every word that comes out of my mouth and everything I do because it all affects them. The crazy part is that everyday God uses my kids to make me a better person by testing almost every area of my character. So I keep working with them (on loving, listening, & potty training, etc.) and God keeps using them to work on me (in patience, self-control, trusting God and unconditional love.)

I'm not sure how I found enough time to write all this, except that the two older ones are watching VeggieTales, cuddled on the couch, "nuggling" (snuggling), and the baby is exploring the living room floor. But now its time to clean up the disaster that is the house for the 3rd time today, and find something to make for dinner.

Today is the LAST day that my kids will EVER be this small again. Tomorrow they will be bigger and years from now, all these little daily nuances of change will be forgotten. I never want to take for granted the great blessing that God has given me in these awesome kids!