It's Not About the Bunny

D'aaawwwww, isn't he cute? That's Phillip, and he was my rabbit until I developed a rather bad allergy to his fur. Anyways tomorrow is Easter, and for many children that means they are going to sleep tonight with the impression that a giant bunny rabbit is going to come into their homes/yards and hide eggs full of goodies, and fill up baskets with toys and treats. The vast majority of those children, even those in Christian homes, are probably not thinking about the broken, bleeding, and dying man that died for our sins and rose from the dead.

     First of all, I have no issues with families who want to do the Easter Bunny thing. Seriously, I'm 100% cool with it. I had the Easter Bunny when I was little and I'm not exactly out worshiping Satan right now, so I highly doubt belief in a giant bunny is going to ruin their faith later in life. I loved waking up to the "bunny tracks" on our front walkway, seeing my basket overflowing with goodies, and beating my older brothers to the eggs (after I dragged them out of bed). So please, please, please don't think I'm trying to knock the "bunny crowd".

     We have made the choice not to teach our children about the Easter Bunny, a choice that was personal and unique to our family. I have to say it's been interesting blending my and Kenny's backgrounds and we have had to really sit down and have serious discussions about these things. We were both raised in a Christian home, so we aren't all THAT different but there are a few experiences we had growing up that were a little different. Our families did much of the same things. Going to Church, we learned all the Sunday school stories, participated in corny Christmas pageants, you know.The difference in this case is when I was little I believed in the Easter Bunny, Santa Clause, and imaginary birds named Frankie who lived on my shoulder...what? Got distracted there. My point being here that I grew up with these mythical creatures as real and Kenny didn't, although I think he had the tooth fairy.

     It's something you don't think about at first when you have children. There are all of these weird questions that come up that you never thought about. Before I ever met Kenny I just always assumed my kids would believe in the Easter bunny. Well, when you get married and decide to have kids, you need to talk about these things because you now have another persons feelings to consider too. We have had several discussions on what beliefs we want to instill in our children, and what traditions we want to start with our family as a result. When it came to giant bunny rabbits hiding eggs, we both decided to leave the bunny out of it. After all...Easter isn't about the bunny. We still kept some traditions I grew up with, but we've added traditions from Kenny's past too, as a way of blending our pasts to make all new experiences for our kids. I've made up Easter baskets for all three of us, and we took Roxas to his very first Easter egg hunt this year so I mean...we aren't totally axing the "mainstream" Easter activities. It's just we won't be including the bunny part.

     What we plan on teaching Roxas (and Lucy...and future children) is that we do these fun things as a way of celebrating. We are celebrating the resurrection of Christ and all that it symbolizes. As a little kid I get how it can be hard to wrap your tiny brain around what exactly the true meaning of Easter is. So I don't expect them to really get it for awhile but we will still try to teach it as best as we can. Honestly it was hard for me to understand completely until I became a mother. Until I experienced a love so fierce I would die for another human. This kind of love, that fierce, absolutely pure, love is the kind of love shown to us by God even though we all deserve Hell. We are loved, we are granted mercy, we are forgiven. God sacrificed His only son for us. His only son. For awful, sinful, hateful, essentially terrible people. I don't know about you but there is pretty much nobody...scratch that...there is absolutely no one on this Earth I would sacrifice my son for. Ever. Yet...God did just that. He sacrificed His son for me. Me. You. My neighbor. That weird guy who creeps you out. He sacrificed His only son for all of us, granting us a completely undeserved ticket to paradise with Him. Seriously...wrapping my head around that is almost impossible. He is an amazingly loving God who has given us the most priceless gift of all and I think that is worth celebrating.

     Tomorrow we will celebrate with Easter baskets, candy, toys and a little egg hunt at home for Roxas. However instead of the focus being on a large rabbit that may or may not have been exposed to radioactive chemicals at some point (I mean really, how did he get that big?) the focus will be on Jesus Christ and what an amazing gift we have been given as followers of Christ. Even though I've fallen flat on my Christian face at least a million times just this year...I rejoice, I celebrate, I am thankful all for the empty tomb the symbolizes my freedom.

    

    

22 Weeks- Baby is getting big!

     Twenty two weeks today...and coincidentally...I am twenty three years old today! So far it has been an amazingly wonderful day and I have been receiving Happy Birthday wishes all day long. One of my closest friends from nursing school treated me to lunch today and we even got to leave class a little bit early! I am enjoying putting my feet up and relaxing a little bit now. I had a clinical day yesterday where I was observing surgery and was on my feet for several hours at once and it has for sure taken it's toll on my body! Little Lucy is getting bigger and bigger by the second it seems and my body is ever changing as it accommodates my little nudger.

     Being my birthday and all I was thinking about how your whole idea of birthdays shifts when you are a parent. Especially a mother (sorry dads) has a whole new perspective on it. I am so thankful my mom went through all that she did to have me. There was hurdle after hurdle and she fought through them all to give me life. As a parent in general it's amazing to realize how much your parents actually sacrificed for you. Their lives changed completely just because of you. Two people had their worlds rearranged because of your existence, but the weird part is they are happy about it. So thank you mom AND dad for having me, raising me and setting me on the right path in life. 

     She is roughly the size of a baseball glove, or papaya if you're going with the fruits. I have a few different places I gather all this info from and I happen to like some of the other comparisons besides fruit. I couldn't tell you how big a papaya is but I can understand a baseball glove! The eyelids are still shut but her eyes are moving and tear ducts are forming. The eyebrows and lips are gaining more definition as she begins to look more and more like a tiny newborn. Tiny tooth buds are even forming under the gums. The arms and legs have reached their final proportions, although they will still get bigger. Her brain is now set to "warp speed" and is developing rapidly, specifically the germinal matrix which is kind of a brain cell factory which disappears just before birth. Hopefully she is listening during all of the lectures and absorbing all this information!

     As I mentioned earlier, my body is every changing to adjust to a growing baby. I almost feel like third trimester (only 5 weeks away!!) has come early for me. My ankles have started to swell, my belly aches and hurts by the end of the day and my back is killing me 80% of the time. I've also acquired several new stretchmarks. My poor skin is just being put through the ringer on this one. My belly has really "popped" out and my belly button is getting flatter by the minute. I get kicks ALL the time. Like her brother, she aims for my liver and ribs...but she isn't quite big enough to reach...yet. Kenny finally got to feel some good kicks. Little booger stages a dance party, but once his hand is on my belly it's quite as can be in there. I can see my tummy twitching and moving as she stretches and moves around (see video at the very bottom of this post). This makes up for all the other crud I put up with. We have our next ultrasound on Friday and I'm super excited to see little girl again...and pray that she is still a little girl. Otherwise I have a lot of pink things to change out. Other than that there isn't much else to report! Hope everybody has a great Easter weekend!