Gospel Community...Being More Transparent

Church this morning was AMAZING. It was all about community. Why we need it and how it should look. I stole our pastors phrase...gospel community. It means making our church look like the community that God has in mind. Rich, poor, educated, uneducated, outgoing, introverted all fellowshiping together, being a community. This means that we rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. We support each other through burdens and hard times. We pray for each other, encourage each other and speak truth to each other. While he was preaching I was thinking about our COM group (small group) that we have recently joined. We have begun making friends in this group and are enjoying getting to know them. However, as he was talking about how we should be more transparent in our COM groups, in order to allow us to really be a gospel community, I was thinking about how most of our group doesn't really know about Grant. One couple already knew Grant's story. I used to work with her and we were friends before we started going to church there. However, only 1 or 2 more girls in the group know about him. It's not because we aren't proud of him. I think it's because we don't want to burden others with the sadness of a baby dying. The look that people give you when you say your baby died is heartbreaking and we aren't always open about it. We need to be though. I was talking with my friend Melinda (who is in our COM group and knows about Grant) after church today about this. I think the next time our group gets together we will share Grant's story. The whole story. These are our friends, fellow believers, those who are supposed to be there to support and love us, they should know about our first born, our son.

I've been thinking about Grant a great deal more lately than normal. I think about him every day but most of the time it's a short thought as I see his picture on our wall or see his nose on Amelia. Sometimes I think more as I rock her and pray before bed or when I see a little boy that would be about his age. As his second birthday is approaching I've thought about him more. I've thought about how I want to celebrate him for his birthday, how I want people to remember him. I'm still working on what I would like to do for his birthday but I'm sure I will figure something out that will honor him and celebrate him. First, I will share his life with our friends.

1st Christmas

This year I was lucky and had the ENTIRE week of Christmas off! It was amazing to be able to spend her first Christmas in Dallas with our families. It was a crazy busy week but we enjoyed it and were thankful for the time we had with family. We were then thankful that we got to sleep in our own beds when we got back :) We started our week off by going to my Memaw's 80th birthday party/family Christmas party. Amelia got to meet family members for the first time and it was nice being able to celebrate my Memaw. The next day we went with my Mom to take my Memaw home and then we went to my Aunt's house and Amelia got to be cuddled by more family members she had never met. I hadn't seen my Aunts in a long time so it was nice to see them and visit for a while. Amelia loved the attention cause she's rotten like that. Monday, yes Monday (2 days before Christmas), Jonathan and I took my Dad Christmas shopping. Oh! What an adventure that was. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were full of Christmas activities with our families. The only problem with everyone living in Dallas is everyone doesn't really live in Dallas. The DFW metroplex is HUGE and it's about an hour and fifteen minutes between my families house and Jonathan's families house. Makes for lots of car time. Thankfully, Amelia is a trooper in the car and did great both days. Thursday we hung out with my Mom and Friday we headed home! We left most of Amelia's gifts at my Mom's house. No room in the car with us, our stuff and our 2 dogs. We will have to get her presents later. Good thing she's too young to know! We also spent a great deal of December in our numerous Christmas outfits and made a trip to see Santa.

I like to eat my reindeer.

Oh Christmas Tree

Me and my birthday buddy/betrothed :)

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas

Not Amused

Christmas Jammies

Cousin Maddi and Amelia

Cousin Kenzie and Amelia

More Christmas Jammies- Christmas Eve

Afternoon Nap on Christmas Day

Memaw and Amelia- 80 and 4 months

Merry Christmas from the Bybee Family

4 months...A Little Late

My baby girl is 4 months old! I really, really, really need time to slow down. Tonight I was loading pictures onto our computer from my phone and Oh..My..Goodness she has grown and changed so much. I can't believe how big she is. Here are her stats and what she is up to now.

Weight: 14lbs 6oz (75%)
Height: 25 inches (75%)
LOVES: playing on her play-mat and in her jumper, her Daddy, bottles and her fingers, baths
HATES: naps, nursing when she is tired, really hungry or it's after 3pm
SLEEPING: 11-12 hours each night (7pm-7am). about 3 15-30 min naps per day
EATING: 4oz every 2 hours when awake. Sometimes takes 6-7 oz before bed or late in the afternoon.

It's really funny that she now prefers a bottle over nursing since she hated them so much in the beginning. She especially wants them when she is really tired, hungry or it's getting later in the evening. She still nurses willingly first thing in the morning which is nice because I HATE pumping. She has outgrown her colic, actually she outgrew that at about 12 weeks. She goes to bed in her own bed around 7pm every night and prefers to be laid down awake and left alone. She hates to take naps during the day and fights it as much as possible. I may try black out curtains in her room. She started laughing 2 days after she turned 3 months old and it is the most adorable sound ever. She now "talks" all the time and tried to help preach today at church. She learned to roll from her tummy to her back on December 10, sat up without help for the first time on December 20 (when she turned 4 months old) and rolled from her back to her tummy on December 30. Today she learned how to turn in circles while on her tummy and is trying to figure out how to scoot on her belly. I'm not ready for her to be mobile! She sucks on her two middle fingers on her right hand to put herself to sleep and sometimes "talks" herself to sleep. She is the sweetest thing in the world and I don't know what I would do without her.

 

Yes I'm sitting on a table at McAllister's. When You learn to sit you have to show off!

Favorite sight ever!

Sitting up chatting with my Grant bear.