Matching PJ's

I'll never forget the day I gave up on matching PJ's.  We had dozens of pairs of them for the boys.  Cute dinosaurs and monster trucks and animals and sports stuff.  I took extra care every laundry cycle to fold and match them all and then put them neatly away in the boys' drawers.  When you have little boys you know the time will be brief that they let you do things like put them in cute matching clothes (outfits, if you will, Kevin Long), so you try to take advantage.  But then it would be Kevin's turn to get them ready for bed some night and not only would he mess up all the neat stacks in the drawers, he would mix up the jammy pieces.  The boys would come bouncing in after a bath wearing monster truck pants with a dinosaur shirt.  Can you even imagine?!  I was sure he was doing it to mess with me, which is dangerous business between the hours of 5pm and 7pm in our house. 

It's not that I'm opposed to mis-matched clothes.  We fight a lot of battles in life.  Generally wardrobe is not one I choose to engage in.  I mean, I do own cat pants.  See also exhibits A-E below.
 

 
There was just something about keeping the PJ's in order.  Until one day I could take it no longer and I gave up.  I just gave up on matching PJ's.  At first I was a little sad, like I had been defeated.  Did I really have so little control in my own household?  (Yes, really little to none.)  But as that feeling faded a very freed feeling took its place.  The PJ's didn't have to match, not at all!  They didn't even have to be folded!  Oh, what amazing reckless abandon!  Now we were living!

Paul talks about freedom in Galatians.

4 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. ² The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. ³ So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces^[a] of the world. ⁴ But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.^{[b] 6} Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba,^[c] Father.” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

You are God's child!!  No one owns you.  No thing can stand against you.  What awesome, awesome, awesome freedom there is in Christ.  What a thing to celebrate!  Friends, like a six year old in a pajama drawer, let it go and let God!  Whatever it is (or who it is) that holds you back remember that Christ has already redeemed you.  He did it because there are good things ahead for those that know His love and want to live in it and He wants those good things for you.  I think that's a pretty good stinkin' deal.  Don't you?

XOXO....Kelly

        

     

Dylan Marie

This little beauty is Dylan Marie Polan, the daughter of my cousin, Anne, and her husband, Dave.  It is my great honor to share a birthday with this little cherub, a much anticipated and greatly celebrated birthday at that!  But Dylan's entrance into this world threw us all for a loop.  Dylan was born with Downs Syndrome, which was not discovered until her birth.  Dylan was also born with several heart issues and, at just a few days old, was flown from her home to a hospital in Las Vegas to begin what would be many long months of examination, procedures and surgeries.  She had two open heart surgeries before she was even six months old.

I remember when we first heard about Dylan's condition.  Isn't amazing what can move a heart half a country away?  I felt complete helplessness as I thought about that sweet baby and all that she would have to endure and as I thought about her parents and what they must be thinking and feeling.  I wanted to reach through the phone lines and just hold them.  The world seems too big sometimes, the distances too great.

But then a friend of mine in Houston called almost immediately with the name and number of her sister-in-law in Las Vegas, whose daughter is a heart patient at the same hospital where Dylan was.  Roxanne was able to check in on them regularly during their stay.  Dylan's name was added to prayer request lists from California to Georgia.  Suddenly the world was getting smaller.

Isn't it a miracle what happens we embrace each other in the love of Christ?  It's like a virtual bridge forms from one person to the next until we've covered half the globe.  How else can we do it, friends?  Certainly not on our own.  "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken."  Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 

You know who you are...the one that thinks you have to do it all alone.  Well, you're not fooling anyone and there is no trophy.  So get over it. 

Today Dylan celebrates her first birthday full of life and joy and blessing.  And she celebrates it upheld by as much love as reached out to her the day she was born...and more!  How good it is to be family, whether by blood or simply by heart.  To be neighbors, whether by proximity or simply by thought.  You are never far from mine, sweet Dylan.  Happy birthday!!

xoxo...Kelly
      

Sisters, sisters...there were never such devoted sisters...

This is my older sister, Christi, and I.  Aren't we stinkin' adorable?  Yes.  Yes we are. 

She and I are just thirteen months apart.  She is a wonderful person, my first choice for a babysitter and one of my dearest friends.  But I am not exaggerating when I say the road to us getting to this place was totally on God. 

Christi and I could not stand each other growing up.  I mean, we loved each other, of course, but also drove each other crazy in only the way that two people living together day in and day out can do. 

She hated to share and has a fear of catching pink eye from shared hand towels. 
I used her hand towel and insisted on borrowing her clothes regularly. 

She took the long way home and made me listen to loud country music on the afternoons when it was her turn to drive us home from school and she played her clarinet loudly in the house. 
I used all of her stuffed animals in a bungee jumping exhibition off the game room banister. 

She made fun of me in front of our cousins. 
I called her Fruity Marshmallow Christi and had a little song and dance to go with it.

The turning point for us was college.  Christi had already been at TCU for a year before me when I decided to attend as well.  Neither of us could frankly believe I had chosen the same college as my older sister when all I had ever wanted was space of my own.  We were placed in the same dorm, right down the hall from each other, my freshman year.  Not only would we be on the same campus but in the same building!  But beauty out of ashes.... 

We started to see each other for who we were instead of picking on each others flaws and a friendship formed.  I'm sure it helped that we no longer had to share a bathroom.  But we accepted God's grace for each other and He made something beautiful out of it.  One time I snuck into her room and took everything but her bed and desk and hid it down the hall.  Not only did I touch her stuff, but I moved it!  I was shocked when she thought it was funny!

Christi and I still have our days.  I know how much she hates change and so I regularly suggest she get a new hairstyle just to see if it will make her anxiety level increase.  She asks one million medical questions any time one of us has a cold.  But, oh what we would be missing out on right now if we hadn't let God's grace in.  We're not meant to best buddies with everyone on the planet.  I truly think there are some personalities I'll just never make it past.  But if you believe that God created you fearfully and wonderfully and for His purpose (and you should), you should believe that about the person next to you, too.  I'm not talking about forgiveness necessarily.  That's a whole other topic.  I'm just talking about giving yourself the chance to see someone as God loves them, annoying tics and all.   

Is there a relationship in your life right now you need to let God's grace in on?  It's a new year right?  Let it in.

XOXO....Kelly
 

First run.

My Christmas gift to Kevin this year was an agreement to run a half marathon with him.  I even bought us matching running outfits.  Kevin says men don't wear outfits.  I say when your wife agrees to run by your side for 13 miles you wear an outfit.  We are registered for the Armadillo Dash, which is held in College Station on March 2.  Between that and announcing it via blog, I guess it's official.  I'm running.

Now, I am not a runner.  I once started to get into jogging, but several weeks in discovered I was pregnant.  End of jogging.  I'm not a goal setter either.  True to my middle child status I like immediate results and am largely motivated by my mood.  So you're probably wondering what in the world would possess me to agree to run a half marathon.  Yeah, I don't know either.  I just feel like I can do it.  I walk the boys to and from school everyday and rarely sit down in between times.  I don't drink or smoke and manage a fruit and vegetable most days.  Surely that's a good enough start.  But mostly I think it's because Parker is a year and a half now, and while he's still so small, he's not a tiny baby anymore either.  I'm starting to remember what it was like to jog alongside Kevin all those years ago unencumbered by nap schedules and breast feeding and potty training and just do something together.  Of course we're not totally unencumbered and even today, my first run of my training schedule, I ran with Parker in the jogging stroller.  But how sweet it will be to have that little face greet me at the finish line!

So today I am one run in with many more to go.  I am sure the "what was I thinking?!!" blog is coming soon, but today I am excited.  It's a new year after all.  "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."  Hebrews 12:1-3 

I mean, we've got matching outfits.  How can we go wrong?

XOXO...Kelly