A Child Myself...Happy Birthday to my child!

This past Thursday we got to celebrate the end of the second year of life of our precious little girl.  She’s become quite the toddler telling her mom, ‘do it Rae-ree self’ (my in myself gets turned into her name).

She’s learned how to put her shoes on, most of the time on the right feet, but regardless we’re proud of her.  She’s learned how to walk down the porch stairs by herself, including holding a baby doll in one hand and a baby car seat in the other!  She’s learning how to go potty on the toilet by herself, which is comical to see a child who is only about ¾ the height of the full toilet trying to mount it like a horse.

In her feats to do it “Rae-ree self” she has asserted her independence, and her stubborn streak!  In honor of her 2 years of life, I’d like to share how her wonderful child-ness has taught me about God and witnessed to me of the Father's love.

First, I would be remiss to say that my daughter comes by her stubbornness by herself :)  She comes by it naturally, through flesh and blood, she’s my daughter and so God the Father, as any good parent, has graced me with a taste of my own medicine…stubborn will!!  I have my moments of docility, but I’m pretty stubborn, my way, my timing, my ideas…it’s all “Natalia-self” in the words of my daughter. 

Every once and a while my daughter has, what I’d like to think of as a classic 2-year-old melt down: one minute she’s putting her shoes on by herself, the next second she’s so frustrated that she’s wildly screaming on the floor with thrashing arms and legs for effect!  It’s cute…the first time… and then as any parent will attest, what you laughed at once and thought, ‘oh you poor girl,’ turns into ‘oh my goodness, make the madness stop.’  

 I remember on one occasion telling her, “if you worked with Mama, things would be easier.”  And therefore, lesson #1: God says “for human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).  I am reminded time and time again in study and prayer that this…the mission, our holiness, anything we are trying accomplish...is not possible by myself, but if I work with God things would be easier.  Instead, I usually act like a toddler Christian and try things on my own, only to be frustrated and disappointed and have my own  meltdown! 

Lesson #2: Ben and I are renewing our consecration to Jesus through Mary.  One of the meditations in Fr. Michael Gaitley’s 33 days to Morning Glory reassures us that Marian consecration is the “easiest, safest, fastest, most secure, and surest path to Jesus.”  As we walked to morning prayer this morning I saw in action how Mary, our mother, can be so helpful in getting us to our goal.

It’s about a brisk 5 minute walk from the St. Therese house (our living quarters) to the main house where we do breakfast and prayer.  We are inevitably running late in the morning and with a toddler our walk can take up to 15 minutes!  It’s not usually her shorter steps that take the time, it’s the distractions along the way.  We have to stop at the small hole along the path for her to look inside and tell us that there’s a frog.  And without fail we have some 5 minute distraction at the park, it might be the swing she needs to push to do an ‘underdog’ with her baby doll, or she has to sit on the merry go round and she squeals, ‘spin, go faster’, or we find the cute pink kid’s barbie jeep that has seen better days and no longer works and she tells us ‘have to get inside.  Need to drive.’  These are all the cutest moments…at any time of the day except in the morning when we’re already behind.  So this morning, in lieu of distractions, I opted for carrying my daughter to walk to morning prayer and when we reached our destination in less than 5 minutes, I was reminded that in our Christian walk, as children, we too get so distracted by all the things of this world to ‘play’ with and forget to continue to move forward to the true goal: Jesus who is “every real good and every joy,” (15 prayers Jesus gave to Saint Bridget of Sweden).  So our Mother Mary picks us up along the way making her help the easiest, safest, fastest, most secure, and surest path to Jesus!

[sorry this post is SO late...We have shared many photos of Raeleigh's birthday and our time in formation on facebook]

Praise you God for being a patient parent...time and time again with me.  Continue to bless Raeleigh in this next year of her life as you continue to form her into one of your great saints!