No son, we are not gypsies.

This summer resembles last summer in that we move nearly weekly, but this season we are not family member hopping- we are church member hopping.  Christopher's 10-week internship just happens to be 30 miles from our last military duty station where we have many friends.

After spending 3 weeks alone with a toddler and a newborn, I was delighted to join Christopher even if it was in the house of two benevolent bachelor brothers where we and Linus shared two twin mattresses of different heights pushed together on the basement floor.  It is good to be together. Let me also mention that one of the three furniture pieces in this house is a baby grand piano. I enjoyed that baby.

Not all of our posts are so parasitic- two are house and dog sitting jobs.  Since that grand basement stay, we have moved thrice and before summers end, we will move three times more. Our fam of four will have stayed in a basement, an attic, two master bedrooms, and yes, bunk beds!

The purpose of this crazy summer may not be merely to make me laugh or make our family more flexible; it may be to grow our faith.  While craigslist sublet searches yielded only "no," $$, "unfurnished" and scams, I felt a persistent peace assuring me of God's provision.  I was persuaded and so I did not waste minutes of months worrying over the mystery of our living situation. Three weeks into the summer a seamless lineup of opportunities presented themselves. We are grateful to all of our friends here who have made this unsettled time for us a little less unstable. If you're reading this, thank you.

A Big Loudbright in the Sky

From the front yard of our house of the week, we sense the local event flickering just under the horizon.  Surrounded by rising fireflies below a clear sky that seldom looks so dome-like, I stand with my 4-mo-old on my hip.  Nearby block parties smell as loud as they sound and I hope a firework rises between these tall trees.

Boom! Popopopttttttpop!  My daughter whirls unsteady to face me. Her empty little memory box has no place for this sensation. She is asking with her wide eyes, "Mom, should I be afraid?"  I offer reassurance with a smile and squeeze.  "Oh okay then."  Joy turns back to the sky happy. 

Introducing little people to fireworks is one of the many little jobs of motherhood.  Happy.

Check out this Throw back to July 4, 2008 post. 

Panicking like a Hebrew

Sometimes when I prepare to feed my 6-month-old son, he loses patience and panics- he throws his head back dramatically and screams all while wriggling and making himself hard to hold onto and harder to convince that "the food is right here, buddy.  Open your eyes."  I sometimes tell him, "Son, I know your needs.  I will feed you and clean you and keep you warm and give you love.  I have provided for you thus far, why would I stop now? I am going to take care of you." 

Today I added to my lecture, "You are acting like the Hebrews.  At the Red Sea, when they saw Pharaoh's army pursuing them, they flew into a needless panic.  Had God not shown His compassion for them when He brought them out of Egypt, had He not proven his power through 10 wondrous plagues, had He not provided for them a pillar of cloud (guidance, shade, cool) and a pillar of fire (guidance, light, warmth) in the desert.  Later, He would even give them manna from the sky and water from a rock.  Did they think He would abandon them at the sea?  Well, Son, God parted the sea and they walked through on dry land and THEN He wiped out their enemy.  Exodus 14.  Baby Boy, I have not failed you yet.  Why are you panicking like a Hebrew?" 

Then I realized that God has reason to ask me the very same question.  Wham!  Humbled.  "Heather, why do you worry about your life?  Look at the birds of the air...your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you  not much more valuable than they?  If God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  Matthew 6.  I have provided for you thus far, why would I stop now?  I am going to take care of you."  Oh. 

An Announcement.

Heather's Text to Paige Marcella Rieck Hill:
Hey Paige, guess what I am.
It's a sort of state of being or a condition if you will. an unplanned and unanticipated but never the less (after a bit of adjusting) welcomed one.
The condition itself is temporary, but the effects are pretty darn permanent.

Paige's Response:
You have a parasite.
That you will name.
And grow to love

Heather's Response:
Yes.

I remember once in college (I don't know why Paige and I were talking about child rearing), Paige said that God gives children to parents on loan for a while to love and to train. Correct me, Paige, if you can say it better than that.


Chris said it looks like a peanut, but I can kinda tell that it is going to be human. See the big head on the left and the little body with arm and leg nubs on the right?

My sister, Katie, commented "I showed my friends at work and Laura said it looked like a gummy bear. Everyone loves gummy bears and they are cute, so tell Chris that it looks like a gummy bear or I thought it looked like a black eyed pea..."

But since he/she looks so much like a Peanut, he/she has been dubbed Little Linus.  Let it be known that the birth name will not be Linus.  

Wedding Vows

I have moved. View the new post on the new website at http://www.heatherpaiges.com/wedding-vows/ 

Chris and I hand-wrote our wedding vows to hang over our nightstands (I love his manly script). It is so good to have these promises posted as a daily reminder to love one another well.

We chose Ruth 1:16 to be read at our wedding, "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay." because we knew Chris' service in the Coast Guard would send us bouncing from one coastal town to another. So he and I would be one another's only constant relationship through the years. In each new home, we would hang our vows. I loved them in our first Mainer colonial rental and I love them in our new little NYC/NJ apartment. With no further ado, the vows:

Vows written by Pastor Butch of Living Hope Church in College Station, TX.





Chris and I wrote up our wedding vows then I framed them with these collages. We are going to hang his vows to me over my night stand and mine to him over his night stand. :)