A Week of Mothering

Baby Eva is a little more than a week by now and getting fatter! She needed some chub, and it's encouraging to a young mom to see that the food she provides her child is having a good effect!

Breastfeeding is uniquely challenging. I'm really having to fight for faith and joy though this season. Sometimes the little girl wants to eat every hour and a half, (that was last night) but then she falls asleep after only 3 minutes of feeding. It's overwhelming. Mom keeps reminding me, "She's only a week and a half, darling. She will get better, you will get better. Trust God and let some time pass."

In addition to that, I've been having a case of the blues. My poor husband, some nights he holds both his girls to keep them from crying. I'm praying through the emotion. I know that my feelings cannot be allowed rule me. I spent some time praying in tongues last night, pouring out my burdens to the Lord. Sometimes words don't express the heart well. I'm glad He knows what I need even if I don't know how to ask.

Thank you for praying for our new little family. Please keep it up! Pray that Adam will get some rest and be peaceful about work getting done. Pray Evangeline will sleep regularly, continue to grow, learn to eat well, and ultimately that she will come to know the Lord. Pray that I will trust God and feel His nearness in my trials. Pray the pain will lessen or go away, sleep will be granted, hormones would balance, and that I will enjoy my baby and not feel guilty.

This quote from Kristin on the Girl Talk blog is a good reminder and an encouragement. She writes:

"During mothering weeks like these, I must reach out for the life preserver of God's Word to keep me afloat. A verse someone shared with me when Andrew was little has continued to sustain me through this intense season with three small boys. It's a well known truth from Gal. 6:9 "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

I'm doing a lot of sowing right now. It's not harvest season. The harvest won't come today. And it won't come tomorrow. Not even next year. But I must simply be faithful to sow today. Faithful to train. Faithful to teach. Faithful to love. Or, as it says in the passage, faithful to "do good." And I must trust God that He will fulfill His promises. That I will reap a harvest in due season if I do not give up."