A lifetime of Spring: Our dinner table isn't full yet

Yesterday morning, Lexi got mad at me while we were hanging out in bed because I wouldn't get her any more graham crackers. So she angrily announced, "I AM GOING TO GIVE YOU CRUMBS!!" (except in Lexi verbage it came out more like "CWUMS!!!" and then dumped the little bowl containing all the graham cracker crumbs onto my head.

Since it was barely 7:15 AM, I did the responsible parent act and rolled over while pretending to be asleep so I didn't have to deal with it (also so I could stifle my laughter with my face in the pillow).

And then there is Lyla. Who occasionally will find a cord to chew on until I tell her NO and then she goes on her merry way, happy and content as can be. I always assumed Lexi was an easy baby until I had Lyla. This kid is unbelievable. She is extremely active and physically coordinated (she is trying to walk already and is only 8 months today), but is also cautious and very content. Laid back. I went to the mall the other day with just Lyla and she sat in the stroller for two hours perfectly happy while I browsed (something very rarely get the chance to do) around and just had some time to myself.

Lexi, of course, is a joy and always full of giggles. She is also very extreme. Dramatic if you will. But I love them both so very much.

The other day a friend of mine was telling me that she and her husband were looking around their dinner table and saw empty places. "Our dinner table isn't full yet." And then she looked at me and said, "And yours isn't either." Presumptuous perhaps, but so true. My dad used to say that his quiver of arrows wasn't full yet. That the family wasn't complete. Of course, we all knew once my dad said this, it meant we were adding a new sibling to the family in approximately nine months, give or take (there are seven of us, after all).
I don't know if we will have more biological children. I would like to, perhaps in a few years. But the point is that our dinner table still has empty places around it. And there are children's voices and laughter and tears that still have yet to fill up this old house.

I was talking to another friend of mine recently and was telling her how funny it is that I see all these different paths that my life could take. I could be an art teacher here in the city, I could pursue illustrating, I could get in on Eric's photo and video business and be his full time second on shoots and editing, I could start a business and sell my arts and crafts and sewing creations, etc. etc. etc. I have so many options. And yet I always go back to the fact that I want to invest in our kids right now. Some of these things I can pursue part time, which I am attempting to figure out how to do, but childhood only lasts for so long. Eric and I always talked about raising a family while we were young, and having foster children grow up alongside them seems only appropriate (this might be crazy, but that remains to be seen). And the truth is, I love it. Even when I feel like all I accomplish in a day is wiping butts and preparing snacks, I am, at the same time, investing in the Kingdom of God. And if that doesn't give some purpose to a stay-at-home-mom's day, I don't know what does.

I have been bad at keeping pictures up to date, so excuse the tardiness. But I will leave you with some fun times from this last month during a lovely warm spell that swept across the city.