Breathe

I rarely post little stories but this one was too good not to share.

Yesterday was a full day, complete with my Charlotte sleeping for 30 min in place of her usual 3 hr mid-day nap. I had a Young Life meeting last night that I was scrambling to finish preparing for. Lily Kate is standing at my right hip (as usual) chattering away, "I would like-a have a diff-rint snack please, not have a 'nola bar...... I have a marsmallows?" I opened an email that I had been waiting for all day and the screen told me that it would not open because I needed to "enable macros". Maybe that makes sense to some of you, but that is Chinese to me. I sat back and said to God, "I am just so frustrated". Then I hear miss Kate, "Oh, mommy, you just have a breathe. Like this, mommy (big breathe in and out modeled by Lily Kate). She looked right at me and said "see, it's okay." It was too much for me, I was laughing and feeling tears in my eyes at the same time. Lily Kate is a child full of feelings and opinions and often struggles (as do I!) with frustration and we have been working on this slow down and breathe idea that I thought would be a better alternative than throwing her sandwich accross the room. It's hard to be 2 and have feelings and, frustrations and yet, no good words to express them. It's even hard when you do have words for the feelings! I was encouraged by my Lily Kate and I was just plain shocked that she had been listening to me all this time.

Lily Kate is stil pretty "rough & tumble". (She and her friend, Maddie were wrestling in the dirt at Parks' last softball game & laughing about it the whole time.) But, God is shaping her and developing her nurturing side. I have loved watching her with Charlotte - the way she calls her "seet baby girl" and tries to "suggle" her all the time. I am praying for her to be an encourager. Lord, thank you for that girl!