'08 Babies!

As I've mentioned before, our church has had a recent baby boom-and here is proof! These are the babies in chronological order from right to left (okay, yes, we should have gone left to right but it was quite an undertaking just to get everyone together!) The babies were born from January through the most recent one being mid May. And yes, you do see a set of twins! For some this is our first, others second, and other third or third and fourth, but the fact that they were all born so close ties us all together with a beautiful bond. I love the idea of Evelyn growing up with these children. I know and respect all the moms and am so thankful that my child can be a part of this wonderful community. I'm sure we'll all do some things the same and some things different and I know we'll learn from each other by being surrounded by such a rich variety. Discovery started seven years ago and at the picnic yesterday I was watching children play together who have been playing together for seven years-most of their lives. Every morning I talk to Evelyn about what we're going to do that day, so on Sundays we talk about going to the church nursery. I'll say, "You're going to play with Asher, and Charlie, and Jack, and Ruby" and so on. Yes, I'm sure life will get in the way and odds are against her remaining friends with all of them for any long period of time. But who knows? I would love to post pictures of these babies at her first birthday party, and her fifth, and her thirteenth! And it's not just for her sake that I like that idea. Even just in her first few months it's been so wonderful to talk with the different moms about what they're experiencing and remind myself that we're all in this sleepy, cranky, surprising boat together. It's great to hear the good and the bad-one baby is fussy without mom, another is only taking twenty minute naps, another just started eating cereal, another rolled over for the first time. All these moments are so important and I feel that all the more powerfully because I am seeing them not just through my own eyes for my own child, but they are reflected in a variety of ways by the families around my own.