a ligament

I've been doing lots of thinking lately and decided that I feel like a ligament :) It's been rather slow here as far as making friends and feeling part of a community as we did in Minnesota. Using the analogy of the body of Christ, I feel as though we severed ourselves from the body of Christ we knew in Minnesota and we were kind of just floating here in Chicago. But! I've come to realize that the body of Christ is much bigger than that. Rather than being a ligament that was, for some reason, completely removed from the body, it is more like the body just had surgery....I was reading the other day about how with major ligament injuries like in the knee, doctors can somehow take a ligament from somewhere else in the body and graft it in place of the injured one. Don't ask me how and maybe I imagined it, but that is just about exactly how I feel. I am not completely disconnected from the body of Christ here, I just have a new place and it takes time to heal from that surgery to feel more at home and more useful in the new place. A strange thought, but a comforting one, nonetheless, in the midst of millions of strangers.

In spite of all of my ponderings in life, the girls keep growing up. Mariah has turned into an amazing reader and writer! She takes school very seriously, but is still very fun and carefree at home. Allison has been having a stubborn streak lately and is a bit antagonistic with her sisters at times. She absolutely loves visiting Mariah at school and will grab paper and markers and start in on her own drawing, right alongside all of these kids that are two years older than her (although they are not all taller than her!). For Mother's Day, Mariah made a couple of notes for me, made her face out of clay (with a pin on the back to wear on my shirt), bought a card and wrote in it AND they decided totally on their own to bring me breakfast in bed. So, at 7:00 I hear them whispering and clinking....and a few minutes later they bring me bread with jam, almonds (because Allison knows that I have some every morning) and an orange (that Mariah peeled, but just needed Mike to help them open). I was impressed! I am always very self-critical about my parenting so it was SO wonderful to be the recipient of their love and appreciation! I have to smile every time I remember it:) Rachel continues to be her opinionated self. She has a strong sense of personal space...she has been known to shove kids Mariah's age at school when she feels that they are too close to her. :- She still has a very limited vocabulary, but is pretty consistent in saying a mix of "ahee" and "oggy" whenever she sees doggies (which is very often). It is rather amusing.