dear noah,

figure out your days and nights.

we're not in china anymore.

love,

mom and dad

can we say

STRONG similarities?

noah.

scott.

just another lovely part of being home. old pictures

and baby books to file through.

noah.

scott.

i'd love to say that when i head over to my parents' house

i'll find some baby pictures

that look like noah,

but i'm afraid the only similar ones

will be where we're smiling ...

with our eyes "closed".

the things they make you say.

i know it's weird.

but this face makes me blurt out

cutie patootie.

and just because i had to show you the

rest of the pictures from

yesterday.

he loved staring at our curtains. white curtains. what the heck is

so interesting about that? as scott says, "we may never know".

this looks like a little school photo or something.

or maybe a picture showing the

definition of a square head.

[the pictures look a little different because i was messing with the different settings. don't ask me why i feel the need to say that, i just do. it was bothering me to think of not mentioning it.]

5 more days

counting down 'til our families get to see these

sweet cheeks.

so pucker up and get ready.

what i'm just a learnin'

scott went to china this weekend.

first time alone with noah.

so of course i called mom at a low point yesterday.

and heard a good word from her.

she said He gives me :

"grace for what is, not what if..."

not sure about you, but when things

get blah i start doing the what if.

ready?

what if i seriously can't do this by myself.

what if it doesn't get easier like people say.

oh gosh, what if something happens to scott.

what if then i really am by myself.

what if blah blah blah.

as dramatic or trivial as they are, i think them.

you can just wear out those what ifs. that's when mom said it. don't go down the road of what if. He gives me grace [in other words: supply] for what is. for the now. and if one of the what ifs happened, then there'd be His supply for that need right then as well.

one day at a time. surrendered day.

a baby brings a whole new meaning to that.

so i woke up today to find more.

wanting to be "shattered".

i loved reading that word this morning.

with all the adjustment lately, i need my present perspective of Christ to be shattered.

i don't want my mind to be bogged down.

i want my mind on the things of God, not the things of man.

He is readjusting me. He's doing it by

finishing in me something that only this current situation can do.

some people may wonder [and i ask myself]:

"do you feel like

these past few weeks in hk

have been pointless?"

"wouldn't you rather have spent those first 7 weeks of

noah's life back "home"?"

"now that you're moving from hk,

do you think you should have just come

back to auburn to have the baby and stay there?"

NO.

because He is finishing in us something that only this situation can do.

he brings about NEW situations so that

we can become NEW in character.

so here i am, hoping for that abundance.

that as i am seeking newness in Him, i will find it.

and find it in abundance.