Take the Joy Dare #7

This week has been peppered with reminders to me of how powerfully the body of Christ can work. We think of the church as a building or an event, but really, it is a living thing made up of living things and it moves and breathes and grows and changes. I have been so encouraged by hearing of others' encouragements and so blessed to bear others' burdens. It is our call and our responsibility to one another. In a small way, this sharing of joys is meant to build you up. My joy is your joy is our joy, amen!

This week in five small snippets...

1) Pitter-patter of toddler feet

Twice in the span of one day, I heard someone else remark on what a blessing it is to hear those little feet, running across the house. I don't think about it because it's my normal. In fact, if I don't hear those little feet, it likely means someone is up to no good! But hearing it from a man who knows he only has a year to live? Saying how he loves that sound of life and it cheers him every time? Yeah, that helped me remember. We have to live our lives. We can't stop and savor every moment because we have jobs and responsibilities and bellies to fill. But... we can certainly stop every so often and be thankful for the right now. Even when it's full of poopy diapers and inexplicable traumas involving misplaced stuffed animals. They are signs of life... and life? Is a blessing beyond measure.

2) Flower buds

They will almost certainly die and part of me wants to tell them, "Go back into the ground!!" But we had just enough sun for some of our flowers to get excited, and they poked their little green heads up through the ground. I can't even express the joy it brought my heart to see the promise of fresh, green coming so, so soon!

3) Pretty new scarf

There is nothing quite like a new little adornment to put a spring in my step! It doesn't take much, y'all :)

4) Excellent neurology visit

My daughter is followed by a neurologist because of the prevalence of seizures in CMV babies. We also discovered calcifications on her brain during her hospital stay and while no one can say for sure what that means, practically, it means we need to see a specialist who can address whatever impact they might have. We went for a six month check-up (he saw her at the end of her hospital stay, about seven months ago, actually). He was very pleased to hear all the wonderful things that have come our way since her discharge: her allergic colitis diagnosis (which was much better than other scary things they thought could be going on with her digestive system), no more G-tube, no more medications, big growth. He checked her over and praised her health! He said she looks absolutely normal to him. "Normal" = not a word I ever hear with my daughter. And while that's fine and I embrace our alternative path, it sure was good to hear from the brain guy. We'll do an MRI (mostly for her cochlear) and he'll review it, so it's possible we'll have more to hear from him, but for now? A great check-up and praises all around!

5) Survival -- we made it through this fussy day...

My husband is on his way to becoming a doctor (of Philosophy... in English... arguably as important for your brain as [and more important for your soul than] my daughter's neurologist). A fellow doctoral student told me that spouses of stressed out grad students deserve destination vacations. She is correct. It's his degree, but I'm considering having everyone call me Dr. Buck too; we're earning this degree together! Some days? We just make it through alive. Teething baby + toddler with this own mouth "ouchies"= fussy, fussy day full of Orajel and highly educational films (who am I kidding? Bring on Elmo!). That day? Not one minute of quiet and when they finally went to bed and I sat down to write my joys, the first thing that came into my mind was, "Thank you, Lord, that we made it through this day." And we did. He provided. He provided exactly what we needed and then some.

There are some sweet, sweet gems in Ann's Only the Good Stuff this week. Check it out! I wrote earlier this week about how you're not enough... and why that's so awesome. Gearing up for the first Sunday of the season of Lent tomorrow and a special post on how our family is observing this season. Happy Saturday, friends!